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EIDDS.COM

... „d™.rk Ol Eido. te^dvd. Eidos, Eidds I"”™;'' ll',''' 7*T™ W.”" Wdc„,

Visit www.esrb.org
or call 1-800-77V3772
for more info.

Death can strike anyone.

For the right price.

You never know when death will come — unless you make a few special
arrangements. Because once the Hitman takes your assignment, someone
takes a bullet. It’s not a righteous way of life, but we all have to make a living.
Even if it means making a killing.

• Plan your assignment to account for multiple completion paths to each mission.

• Access black market weapons, decoys, traps, and personnel from an innovative
currency reward system.

• Artificial intelligence that redefines the genre of the "Thinking Shooter".

• Learn how to become a more proficient hitman through a comprehensive
weapons and agility training session.

• Gripping and mature plot driven by stunning cinematic visuals.

CODENRME HT

MECCARYNS

A high-tech and crafty race who
rule the sky with ingenius military
formations, awesome fire power
and the ability to contruct a
massive land base.

A huge ferocious beast capable of
performing wrestling style moves on
poor victims his size, sending
out attacking offspring or pounding,
crunching and munching pretty
much anything in his way.

T hree of the most remarkable
and unique species ever pitted
against each other on a
computer screen collide to form
Giants: Citizen Kabuto"
combining action, strategic thinking,
twisted humor and incredible 3D
graphics for the most frenzied single
and multiplayer battle ever staged!

• Eat, burn, drown, crush, kidnap and bury
your victims!

• Play as each of 3 different species; the
Meccaryns, the Sea Reapers and the Giant
Kabuto in intriguing story-driven single
player missions with multiple cut scenes.

• Battle on over 25 strikingly beautiful 3D
islands utilizing a vibrant color scheme
unlike anything ever seen before.

• Multiplayer mayhem! Choose your
favorite species or divide up teams for
cooperative play and let the frenzied
battle begin with up to 8 people via LAN,
modem-to-modem or TCP/IP.

• Choose from 1“ or 3'' person perspectives
in addition to the revolutionary "Kabuto
Mouth-Cam" and “Foot Crunch".

• “Smarties” (island natives) work as a source
of power-ups for you by providing weapons,
vehicles, shops, spells and even a big base!

o’U’w.interplaY.com/giants

SEA REAPERS

A species of lovely, ethereal females who
can decimate enemies with the cast of
a spelt or construct a magical base
protected by fearsome creatures and
yet still retain their vixen charm.

Often using nightmares to
weaken and corrupt those
who can best serve his dork
purposes, Diablo employs
illusion ond fear as his
greatest weapons in the
tireless battle against Order.

© 2000 Srinunt Enlertomnienl. All righh resened. Diablo ond Bliuoid bileiloinineiil oie trodemorics or legislefed
Irodemoilu of Hovos Inlemctive, lftL,Qnd/or ilsvdiolV owned subuliarin in (be Ui. ond/or olfier countries.

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Ann, Waa ol On Sword Coast, Fcrsottan Reakn, On ForgotUn Raaku ton Advancad Oaagaao ft DragoBs, tm ADftO ton
and On TSR toga are trademarks owned by Vtttards nt the Coast, tot, and atm used by btarplay mkr IcaBso. AS Msbu
Reserved. BtoWare aod the BtoWsre boo are the trademarks ol Btoware Carp. AS Riglits Reserved. Back Isto Stodtos and the
Black Ilia Studos logo are trademarks ol Interplay Entartataraani Corp. AS Rigbis Resarved. Exctostvaly ieansad and
disirllniled by Interplay EnterlainmonI Carp, AH olhar trademarks and copyrights are preperty of tbrir respective owners.

^an love survive the struggle between good and evil? This is one
of the questions you'll confront in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of
Amn. Immerse yourself in a world of intrigue, adventure and
combat where the line between friend and foe Is defined only by
instinct and a quick blade. You may discover why some vows are
better left unspoken.

A The ultimate multiplayer experience in the sequel to the
Roleplaying Game of the Year.

A Create a new character or import your Baldur’s Gate charaaer
into Baldur's Gate II and continue the epic saga.

^ Encounter hundreds of different types of monsters, thousands of
NPCs and over 130 new spells in a huge and intricate world.

New races and character kits such as the Half-Ore, Beastmaster,
Undead Hunter and Assassin add to an extensive array of
character options.

www.interpIay:com / bgate2

,BlMl

Visit wvw.esrb.org
5rcall1-e00-771-3772
(wmore info.

"...one of the
biggest RPGs ever]

- ICN.PC

From the Creator of

WIZARDRY' V, VI, AND VII.

D.W. BRADLEY

AdiVisioN

lids & Hbiias e n Iradciti

iiilnried by Aclinsiun /tcInislonisaicgLSIeicd liaUrnuili nl Activisinn. liiiX.M2anl'V ib i
I Sollwaie Assncnlian. All nihei tiaiteirKiiks arM Irndn nomcn wc llu.' prepcrtii's ol tlvn

iiniaikiKjiliMIOaAmio, Iik^AII iigbls lusciwd.

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I irepccUvo I

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RPu as Vast as Lagand

In an enchanted medieval realm known
as the Gael Serran, an evil Pharaoh has
overcome a curse and returned to wreak havoc.
Only the legendaiy Mavin Sword —
a blade forged of twin metals,
one cursed by evil, the other blessed
by the divine — has the strength
to bring his defeat.

Can you uncover the mysteries of the
Sword before terror reigns?

Over 300 hours of gameplay with:

• 45 diiierent environments ■ 3 o skills and 15 stats
• 60 traits and 8 attributes • 10 races and 15 professions
150 character and goo possible parfy combinations • 6 spell books and 1:40 spells

I’lUKimderover 100 NPCs. Iiahleilf^o
dilTci'cnt characters and creatures,
wield weapons and cast
a myriad of magic spell.s.

Rtnhnrkon over loo quests, mini ipiests
and advent II res in 'aoo lioiirsof
giimeplay. Iialtlingin real lime
and turn based combat,

WingMan RumblePad

—

FOUGE 3D

Force

FCEOBHCk

02000 Logitech. All rights reserved, Logilec^ the Logitech logo. WingMan. Force Feedtuckand the Logitech products
referred to herein are lltner irademarkl or the regltteiied Iradeirsaiks at Logitech. WingMan Force 3D and WingMan
Formula Force CPerthancedbyTouchSenseTedtnology licensed tiom Immersion Corporation.

www.logitech.com

WingMan Formula™ Force GP

Your hand is hungry for something more. Not a joystick
that just sits there while it does all the work. No, your
hand wants a force feedback-infused machine that
reacts to every jerk, crash and explosion of the game.
The WingMan Force 3D Joystick. Your hand deserves it

WingMan Force 3D

CGMRUTER ^ -

camimc CONTENTS

WORLD

FEHTUBES

60 They Might Be
Giants

J ust when strategy games were getting
as predictable as the plot of a porn
flick, along come five new games, from
five experienced designers, that haven't a
single cliche among them. Get the word
on the fresh gaming styles of BLACK &
WHITE, DREAMLAND CHRONICLES,
TROPICO, REPUBLIC, and SIGMA.

80 Diahio II

T he Devil made us do it. Really! How else can
you explain this mammoth review and strat-
egy feature on a repetitive, dated, absolutely un-
3D game that we can't stop playing? Obviously,
something right wicked is in the house.

1 38 Strategy Designers Talk the
Future of the Genre

Strategy Games by Robert Coffey

140 Fight, Fight Against the
Dying of the Flight

Simulations by Gordon Berg

142 How a Couple of Gamers
Created the Ultimate Mod

Action Games by Thierry "Scooter"

Nguyen

Tribes 2

When TRIBES 2 goes to war, money's on that you

144

The Joy of Text

can score.

Homebrew Games by T. Byrl Baker

Call to Power 2

CIVILIZATION gets a makeover, and — girl! — it's

146

Sports Gaming Makes an

looking to get its groove back.

Online Play

Sports Games by George Jones

Rune

A Norse is a Norse, of course, of course.

Icgn.gimespsl.com • StPTlMBER 2000

ESMPgrtB tRHIiE MRIB

one small step for man...

one screaming leap
for racing
games.

Ill)

BY GEOFF CRAMMONE

Step into the virtual cockpit of the perfect simulation of th'
Formula One Championship Season down to the last damps
and anti-roll bar. It will not be easy. But it will be fast. Soreamin,
fast. From Monaco to Silverstone, from rookie to ace, fror
single player to 4-player speedfest, from checkered flag t
champagne - GRAND PRIX 3 is the next step up for real racin
fans. Your car is waiting.

* 2000 Hisbro IntEriclivt Inc. Ail iiglits resen«il. Game CftdeS 2000 GeofI Crammoni} All iignis reserved.
'An Ollicial Product ol Ibe lM6 FIA Formula One World Cnampionstiip licensed by Formula DneAdminrstialion

rORMULAI

WORI.P

/ffcD-RDI^

iryHijm ''N —

jlMi

BUNGIE takes the MICROSOFT PLUNGE, CROATS
CRAFT SERIOOS SAM, TIPPECANOE AND TF2, AND
MR. SNEAKY GRABS A PEEKV AT GAMING'S DIRTY
LAOHDRY.

Shogun: Total War
MDK2

Combat Mission
Ground Control
Vampire: The Masquerade
Klingon Academy

Evolva 112

Earth 2150 114

PGA Championship

Golf 2000 lie

EverQuest; Kunark 118

The Operational Art of War 120
Test Drive: Le Mans 120

Flying Heroes 120

Army Men: Air Tactics 122

Army Men; World at War 122

Lemmings Revolution 122

SlmCity 3000 Unlimited 122

GAMER'S EDGE

136 CG Tips

COUNTER-STRIKE, FLYING HERDS,
MDK 2, EARTH 2150, AND MORE

124

HAHDWARE

124

Saving Your World

A hard-drive partition backup will spare you
future pain.

128

Under the Hood

How much 3D is enough?

130

Tech Medics

Our get-fixed-quick scheme.

132

Killer Rigs

Build a gaming beast.

134

Hardware Reviews

Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical

HP CD'Writer Plus 9310i

Logitech Wingman USB Hub

THE USUALS

23 George Jones

What’s Black & While and read all over?

27 Letters

Like email, but on paper.

150 Index of Advertisers

The phrase that pays.

152 Greenspeak

Big Daddy lays down the law.

• SEPTEMBER 2000

CaMPUTEA ERMINE WORLD

Realisf/c J-D environments,
day and missions and
■^r^^ine^f‘ 5 ight bring the

Battle as the elite JDA
or as the ragtag
revolutionary Sprawlers
in 20 challenging .
single-player v'
miss/ons.

Utilize powerful, simple
controls, including a squad
and building manager, smart
targeting and behavior commands.

ASSAULT THE HILL BY
COMMANDEERING A
* TANK BRIGADE.

Dominate the Internet with
intense multiplayer action,
including King of the Hill
and cooperative play.

www.activision.com

AcItVisioH,

IP L AYl

■ WOW.netl

TAKE DEFENSIVE
Ag-jgN T tf rIls cje
y^Atroops.

Aclimon is o rtgrsiireii imiemark ai\d Dark Reig/i is s ImdtmiiX ofAclmsien, lot. H IS^l-iOOO
Acti'jistBa, Inc. ;iOngA£siK«ned. nw ramgs inn rsc frixjfffliv.t: of the Inieittciiit Digital Sotimit
Assaciatton. AU otAfr nsifeniariis or mOe names ore rfw properties of (Aeir resperiire O'jmers.

THE BATTLEFIELD OF THE FUTURE

^REVOLU TION
■aa IN A—

WORLD of MAGIC

Uanger awaits, hardy traveler,

in the turbulent lands of Arcanum!
Prepare potion or pistol, for armament is
a must! Encounter more than 500
friends and fiends of the oddest sort on
dozens of quests and campaig^ns.
Travel alone through this massive realm.

Appleby Steam 1200

Visit wmv.esrb.org
or call 1-800-771-3772
for more info.

or invite companions to join you online.
And for those with discriminating taste,
we sport the most advanced^
role-playing system ever
created in this or any
other reality.

Choose dueling or discourse
to carry the day in this epic
tale. Many means exist to
solve the dozens td quests
found throughout this
massive land.

Rewards await heroes and
villains of hardy caliber and
constitution! Earn Fate
Points and enhance your
Reputation among the
denizens of

Create your own online
campaigns with the
Arcanum World Editor, a
robust tool designed for the

www.aroanuml .com

Grimoire

& Gaslight

Discover the mysteries
of magic and tecdmology!
Delve into dark caverns
or prowl the squalid
city streets to unearth
the secrets of this
tortured age.

iMATTELl

IffiTTlC

I lURDARIAKXAt^C

Ruins OF map) DRAnDciR

New character classes
and races; Sorcerer, Barbarian
and Half-ore.

The Legacy Continues t^k^the

EDITlOn

i^ufos OF cngcL) t)RAOPOR

OUNGEeNS^

■ r.c-Atit

THE COURAGE OE,. LEGEND S ' IS

©2000 The 3DO Company. All Rtghls Reserved. 3DO. Legends of Might and Magic, Might and Magic, New Worid Computing, and their respective logos, are trademarte
Interactive Inc. Creative, Environmental Audio, and their respective lo^s, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Creative Technology LTD. in.the

Measured by the Evilthey free

Now, for the first time, you can summon allies over
the Internet as you prepare for the ultimate battle.
Face sinister monsters, devious traps and cunning
enemies. The power is in your hands, the
outcome is uncertain. Do you have what it takes
to become a Legend?

New 3D gaming worlds powered by

the advanced LithTech'" gaming technology.

•

Six new characters ready for battle with
different skills, spells and advantages.

Customize your character with scores
of armor, weapons and abilities.

Richly detailed single player campaign and story.

Cooperative and Deathmatch
multi-player action over the Internet.

wvy.w.mightandmagic.com

for service mailtsofThe 3DO Company in (lie U.S. and other.countries. Sdfx Interactive Inc. is ©2000. TTie Sdjxjnlefective logo is a registered trademark of 3dfx
>.ancE/or other countries. M other trademarks belong to their respective owners. New World Computing is a division of The 3DO Company.

^ IvyEXSXj^

[^OCs)Cr)CS

Satisfy your craving for dlrt-bike action, head-numbing crashes and outrageous
stunts on over 40 tracks in 6 events including Stunt Quarry, Nationals, Baja, Enduro,
Supercross and Multi-player Tag, and get that blood of yours pumping. Download the
free trial version of Motocross Madness 2 at www.microsoft.com/games/motocross2

□

Microsoft

O 2000 Microsoft Corporation. Al! rights teservsd. Microsoft ond Motocross Madness 2 ore either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S, and/or other countries.
YAMAHA Iso registered trodemork and is used with permissienofYarrtaho Motor Co., ltd. HONDA9, the Wing® logo, CR®, XR^ond the distinctive likenesses of its motorcycles ore owned by HONDA
MOTOR CO., ITO. and licensed by AMERICAN HONDA MOTOR CO,, INC. in the U.S. The KTMTrodemarks ore used by Microsoft with express written permission of KTM Sportmotorcycle USA. Inc.

EDITORIAL

12 Hours Later

A s a general rule, unless the pay-off is a tropical beach
and brightly-colored drinks, or week upon week of
free time, 12-hour trips suck. But somewhere over
Nova Scotia, the appropriateness of travelling 6,500 miles to
England to see BLACK AND WHITE struck me. After all, a short,
traffic-filled, one-hour drive from San Francisco to San Jose
would have seemed, well, too easy a journey. 1 was on my way
to becoming the first person in the world to actually play the
feature-complete version of what could be one of the most
important games in the history of PC gaming.

As journalists, we speak in strong words
quite frequently. It’s part of the job. But prag-
matically speaking. BLACK AND WHITE repre-
sents a significant, much-needed shift. Up until
now, games have come in two flavors; linear,
puzzle-solving affairs that force you to move
along at a pre-determined pace; or the much
less popular, wide-open, creation-oriented
experience like THE SIMS. BLACK AND WHITE
melds the two together.

For the most part, even at their finest, games
still are held to the movie paradigm. Motion pic-

W'Up until now, games have come in
two flavors: linear, puzzle-solving affairs
that force you to move along at a pre-
determined pace; or the much less popular
wide-open, creation-oriented experience
like THE SIMS. BLACK AND lAlHlTE melds the
two together.

tures (and books) represent the most linear plot possible.
Excepting movies like Go and due, and the Choose Youi Own
Adventure books, the stories in these genres have only a single
way for the hero to win, or for the story to finish: the director's
or writer's way.

Too many computer games stick to this paradigm. I’m sure it's
much, much easier to develop games that feature solutions that
can only be solved via liighiy specific methods.

But PC games are capable of so much more. My hope is that
BLACK AND WHITE represents the inevitable shift, be it in
single-player or online, toward PC games that place you in the
middle of a giant sandbox with loosely defined rules— and still
manage to tell you a moving story. Isn’t that the true meaning of
interactive entertainment?

I'm curious to hear your opinion. Do you think games need to
make this shift? Sound off at georgeJones@ziffdavis.com. B3!J

:om • SEPTEMBER 200D

couphtei simiig horib

Visit www.esfb.crg
or call 1-800-771-3772
for more info.

flERRA

* A COMPANY

2000 Slofra On-Line, Inc. Dynamix is a regislorad tradematk ol Dynamix, Inc.
Tnbes. Sierra Sljdios, Sierra and the 'S' Logo are trademarks ot Sierra On-Line, li

All righls reserved.

Tfie Tale is Lepeijdarii. Tlje Stori) is VoDrs.

Immerse yourself in the legendary
World of Darkness^and build your own
tales of Korror. Tben join thousands
of Vampire : The Masquerade® players
online, sharing and hosting the
twisted adventures you have created,
o Let the feeding frenzy begin...

"Pic^ if [ip as sooii as passible — pab’ll fiaile fje fiipe a/ pabp Upli/e."

— Incite

Relive the pen— and— paper role— playing Manipulate your World of Darkness Customize a character of your own

experience with the revolutionary using real-time commands, including and join in other players' adventures

Storyteller system, creating and adding monsters, controlling NPCs through WON. net's free

hosting your own online adventures. and triggering events. matchmaking service.

*aiVisioM.

JAMES D. DUNMNG, JR.

PBttlDENT, C0N8UWI

JAMES J. SPANFELLER

AL PERLMAN
:mcitTivt vict PHemit

tP tPITORHL PI

MICHAEL J. MILLER [EOITOR'INCHIEF, PC MAGAZINE)

iKteunvt VICE pRiuptNi «wp puaugHiNo piwtcioR

SCOTT CRYSTAL [CONSUMER MAGAZINE GROUP)

■ Xicimvt VICE PBtllDEWI i»NP PUBUSMINO DIHtCTOB

BILL FLATLEY [ZIFF DAVIS SMART BUSINESS FOR THE NEW ECONOMY)
txteoTiyi Viet ppcsidint ahp pppusmino pibecior

PETER LONGO [CONSUMER MAGAZINE GROUP)

RITA BURKE (CORPORATE SALES)
CHARLES MAST (CIRCULATION)

JOHN DODGE [EDITOR. EWEEK)

G. BARRY GOISON (EDfTOR-INOHIEF, YAHOOl INTERNET UFE)

ROGER HERRMANN [PRODUCTION)

HOWARD KAPUN (MARKETING. CONSUMER MAGAZINE GROUP)
ERIC UiNOOUlST (EOrTORTNCHIER EWEEK)

Bill UACHRONE (TECHNOLOGY)

MICHAEL PERKOWSKI [MARKETING. CONSUMER MAGAZINE GROUP)
ROBIN RASKIN (EDITOR-lIVCHIEF, FAMILYPC)

SLOAN SEYMOUR (PUBUSHER. EWEEK)

PAUL SOMERSON (EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, ZIFF DAVIS DEVELOPMENT]
DALE STRANG [GAME GROUP)

VINCENT STABILE [HUMAN RESOURCES)

U'H.LM

VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER. MARK VAN NAME
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, BILL CATCHINGS

JAMES D. DUNNING, JR.

TOM MCGRADE

PBEtlOENT. CONtUMCR MAOMINC

JAMES J. SPANFELLER

a mo CEWEWL counsel

CAROLYN SCHURR LEVIN

KIM HOOVER

EUZABETH ESTROFF

COMPUTER GAMING WORLD (ISSN 0744€667| IS PUBUSHED MONTHLY
BY ZIFF DAVIS MEDIA INC. COPYRIGHT CSOOO ZIFF DAVIS MEDIA INC.
ALi RIGHTS RESERL^O. MATERIAL IN THIS PUBUCATION MAY NOT BE
REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT PERMISSION. CONTACT ANYONE
ON THIS MASTHEAD VIA E-MAIL USING FIRST NAME.LAST NAME@ZIFF-
OAVlS.COM

LETTERS

Impossible Dream #409

■ ■■ It’s about time online gaming look a big step into the real world. Here’s my proposal;
If I want a pint of Ben & Jerry's and a Snapple, I could drag myself to the store or go to
Kozmo.com and have it delivered, but where's the fun in that? instead, I want to dial up a
local gaming server and challenge whoever's there to a 1 0-minute QUAKE III deathmatch. If
they accept and I win, the server automatically places my drink ‘n’ ice cream order with
Kozmo.com and splits the cost between my two opponents (whose credit cards are instantly
charged). Less than an hour later, my order is delivered and all is right with the world.

1 know my idea is rife with problems, but I don't care! 1 think it would be great if something
like this existed. Please, bug all your game-design friends to get right on it. Or if not that, at
least give my Sims the ability to order me a real pizza.

Dominick Cancilla

Sim-antics

■ ■ ■ Your Top 40 readers
poll in the August 2000 issue
rated THE SIMS at #6 overall,
and yet it fails to make the
top 5 in the “Simulations"
category. It finished 1 8 spots
ahead of your #1 Simulation,
MechWarrior 3. Am I missing
something? Doesn't the word
‘'sim" at the beginning of
games such as “SimCity” and
"SimCopter" stand for
simulation?

C. Atkins

CGW defines simulations
narrowly as vehicular simula-
tions from a first-person per-
spective. Many games with
“Sim" in their title involve
building and resource man-
agement, which we catego-
rize as strategy games. With
genre hybrids becoming
more common, we've mini-
mized the importance of
these classifications, but
they're still useful for com-
paring similar games.

Another Doom Idea

■ ■■What the hell is id
thinking? Sure, DOOM was a
great game...five or six years
ago. If id gave DOOM a new

engine and re-sold it, it would
be worth crap. Seriously,
what was the point in
DOOM? Collect four key-
cards to unlock a door, then
kill 40 more nightmare crea-
tures from hell. That’s just
plain lame. 1 don't know how
many times I've played a
game with no point to drive
you through it. Id better give
the next DOOM some new
elements (especially the abili-
ty to jump and maybe some
RPG elements).. .then it
might be worth your 50
bucks.

Daniel Portin

Greenspeaks
the Truth

■ ■ ■ Jeff Green's June
Greenspeak was right on.
Blizzard truly is one of the
best gaming companies out
there, confirmed by my pur-
chase of DIABLO 2 recently.
But I think I know why game
companies don't carry out
conversations like those in
Jeff's column...some of them
have big egos. Really big
egos.

Unmeel Banerjea

Role-Playing Rant

■ ■■VAMPIRE:THE
MASQUERADE) Another fantas-
tic-looking piece of crap.

Once again, a great license
and a possibility to be some-
thing more than TOMB RAIDER,
But no, they apparently spent
their budget on graphics and an
unwieldy combat system.

There's no story, appalling voice
acting, cut-scenes are as bad
as most console ports: two
faces looking at each other
while their lips move. Stupid
NPC artificial intelligence that
never lets you forget that they're
expendable,

BORING-

An RPG is NOTHING with-
out a good story. So what
makes a good story? A good
villain? No. Several good vil-
lains. Role-playing means decid-
ing how to react to a variety of
different circumstances, so con-
flicts need that variety. A good
story has a beginning, a middle,
and an end, and progresses
through them without using a
leash. A good RPG is so
engrossing, so interesting, so
FUN that you can forget who
you are to the point where you
find yourself reacting not how
you would, but how that guy in
the cool pixels would. The best
RPG is when you don’t even
notice yourself reacting.

You want profits? Put the
time and effort into a well-craft-
ed tale, with all these compo-
nents designed to make you
invest your life into the story,
and they will come!

John Talcott

Write to us at:
CgwIetters@ziffdavis.coin
For help with subscriptions:
Cgw@neodata.com

DEPT OF CORRECTIONS

In our July list of the Top 1 0 Mac Games (pg 1 1 6), we
incorrectly referred to CALL TO POWER as “SID MEIER'S
CIVILIZATION: CALL TO POWER." Oops. CTP isn't a Sid
Meier game (although some wags may argue it’s surely a
Sid design...). Sorry, Firaxis.

in our August review of X-PLANE, we incorrectly identified
an X-1 in a screenshot as an X-1 5. As Clint Webb and oth-
ers pointed out, the little X-1 flown by Chuck Yeager when
he cracked the sound-barrier doesn't look much like the
black, swept-wing, rocket-powered beasts that went to
Mach 5. We stand corrected.

• SEPKMBEII 2(100

COMPITER BRUINS NOBID

pefend San Francisco from
■lllillpr^urpfi^^aftackr^^

^_jiANK God everything’s not i-owered rt V00D005.

With the world’s first f-’ull-scene hardware anti-aliasing and our proprietary
T-buffer''cincmatic effects engine, the new Voodoo5''’is the most powerful 3D accelerator card on
the planet. Want proof? Sec for yourself @ www.3dfx.e0m.

,Fyt,L,-ScENE Hardware Anti-Aliasing:

T-Buffer cinematic Effects Engine;
The most realistic 3D environment

Up to 1.5 GioaPixel/Sec.

Fill Rate; TfeAR through levels,

INSTANTLY SHAFiPENS

ALREADY OWN.

BURN THROUGH SCENES.

Microsoft Bags
Bungie

SEPTEMBER 2000

Mac gamers
crushed, while
PC gamers
await word on
Halo’s platform
preference

■ ■ ■ It was a jump rather
than a push for Bungie
Software. On June 19th,
Bungie agreed to be pur-
chased by Microsoft. Bungie
was not in financial distress,
but rather saw this acquisition as a good opportunity, according to Peter
Tamte, executive VP of Bungie, who talked to CGW about the deal.

"Why sell?" Tamte said. "For the opportunity to play a key role in the
launch of the X-Box. And by that, I mean that a lot of companies had
approached Bungie about buying us for more money than Microsoft
offered. But none of these other potential buyers offered us two
important things that Microsoft did. First, Microsoft is allowing
Bungie to maintain its independence as a development studio
and retain our Bungie values." Tamte elaborated on the val-
ues, saying that they "like to create new technologies
because it allows us to create far more original games. We
want the gamers to have a new experience when they
play a Bungie game."

The other important element in the deal according to
Tamte is that Bungie is getting to be a key developer for the X-Box. "We're
jazzed up by the X-Box. We're really excited by the opportunity that
Microsoft has given us to be a leading developer for it."

As part of the sale, Take 2 — which had owned 19.9 percent of Bungie —
received some cash, the rights to all the MYTH games, the rights to ONI
(which looks like a Fall release, according to Tamte), and the rights to create
two games using the HALO engine, Microsoft gets the exclusive rights to
HALO and the rest of Bungle's catalog, including MARATHON. Bungie will
relocate to Redmond as part of the deal, but will still maintain and operate
Bungie.net, They anticipate that HALO, one of the star games of E3, will be

featured on Bungie.net,

While the deal makes sense for both parties — it gives Bungle a financial safety net
while still allowing them creative freedom, and it gives Microsoft a star developer for the
X-Box— it does raise some questions. Is this the future of all independent development
companies, finding a buyer? And what about support for Macintosh games?

Gathering of Developer’s Mike Wilson thinks that “the industry is reaching a point
where being an ‘independent’ as a publisher makes little or no sense, unless broadband
distribution changes things the way the music industry has changed. There are still
good reasons for the artists to remain independent, but it's a hard road and most are not
cut out for it. Independent artists are the heart and soul of every entertainment industry,
and they are responsible for virtually all real innovation in the media arts."

As for the $64,000 question; For which platforms will HALO be available? Mac fans
should be comforted by Tamte’s remarks. “A decision has not been made, but if we do a
PC version, we’ll do a Mac version too." While that may ease the worries of Mac fans
somewhat, maybe it’s PC fans who should be concerned. If you want to see a PC and
Mac version of HALO, fans have started a petition at www.game-over.net/halo/.

—Mark Asher

The GOOD...

WARGAMES

RESURGENT?

Two new wargames have caught
fire recently,

SHOGUN and
COMBAT
MISSION,
both of
which are
finally giving
wargamers
realistic
combat

experiences in 3D (see the reviews
this month). SHOGUN debuted at #4
in the sales charts in the U.S., and
#1 in Great Britain. COMBAT
Mission sold out in less than a
week, and it was only available
online. Here's hoping this success
augurs better times ahead for the
neglected wargamer.

hotcbke of the Month

Aliens Hungry for More

■ ■ ■ Fox Interactive confirmed months of
rumors with their recent announcement that
Monolith is working on a sequel to ALIENS VS.
PREDATOR. The sequel is optimistically slated
for a Iate-2001 release, and will use the latest
and greatest, best and brightest version of
Monolith’s LithTech 2.0 engine. Though the
game is in the earliest stages of development,
we were excited to hear the designers' plans
for the game: a better sense of pacing, mote
atmosphere (with a focus on scaring play-
ers), both brightly-lit and dark environments,
and a much greater level of detaO. If the
detail we saw in some early character mod-
els is any indication of the final game, it
should be incredible— with different charac-
ter types readily recognizable at a distance,
thanks to 3D-modeled attachments like
gloves, ammo clips, and belts on Marines;
and an articulated (and most likely function-
al) targeting laser on the Predator. We don’t
want to sound like hypesters, but this could be
the big breakout hit Monolith has been hoping
for. — Robert Coffey

Tchotch ke (choch'ke). Slang, from Yiddish: a cheap, showy trinket.

\ las, one of the creepiest monsters in ait of science fic-
tion— the 4//enfece-hugger— has been reduced to a
lowly Beanie Baby. What's next, alien queen pinatas?
lA/e're debating whether to gouge some collector on E-Bay,
it to wipe the lacquer out of our coffee mugs,
save it from such fates, tell us in 100 words or less
soft, cuddly fece-hugger and we'll
one lucky winner, while exposing your
closet Beanie Baby obsession by putting your
plea in Letters, cgwletters@ziffdavis.com. No
office visits by costumed alien queens,
please. (That means you, Jeff.)

The BAD...

LICENSED GAMES

Why spend a lot of money trying to
make a killer game when you can
spend fifty grand on a movie license
and move mountains of mediocre-
ware at WalMart? That's the ques-
tion a lot of
suits must
be asking,
because the
list of
licensed
games
keeps
growing:

BLAIR

WITCH, PLANET OF THE APES, OBI-
WAN, SOLDIER, EVIL DEAD, and now
HIGHLANDER. As if all the other
movie-based games didn't suck
enough...

and the UGLY

DIRTY
LAUN-
DRY

For the
ugliest sto-
ries in the
gaming biz,
check out
the rumors
and mud-
slinging going on atfatbabies.com.
Recent stories tell of mismanage-
ment and incompetence at EA and
German magazine publisher
Computec Media. The gory details
are enough to make any bigwig
blanch— Bitch X would be proud.

cgM.gineifal.cDm • SIPILMBIR tODD

COMPUTER GRMIN6 WORLD

Jread.me

FIRST-DAY SALES OF OiABLO IIWERE OVER 200,000 UNITSWORLDWIDE.ACCORDINGTO BLIZZARD.
NftWfi 0 N OtSB $60F0flTHE STANDARD AND COLLECTOR'S EDITION, GROSS

IlSftQ IIVISVIM REVENUEWASOVEaSlOMILLION-MORElNLINEWITHAMOVIEPREMIERETHANAPCGAME,

Can You Not See That I Am Serious?!

Croatia is the birthplace of Serious Sam, the new darling of shooters

legitimizing O.D.L CEO
Mike Wilson hopes to
shape O.D.L as a sort of
"farm system” for up-
and-coming developers,
a minor league where
they can put out smaller,
shorter, but fun-packed
games before moving
on, as Wilson puts it, “to
creating their three-
year RPG."

It’s a gaming Cinderella
story, where simple fun is
the champion. As
Levelord observes, “It's
very cool that the team is from Croatia. Here we are, with
all our mounds of money and power tools— and WHAM! —
along comes this terrific shooter from a country we
thought was still in the demise of civil and economic
unrest. Fantastic job, Croteam!"

■ ■■The heir to DOOM might just be from Croatia. That’s
where a handful of guys have spent the last few years
programming a surprisingly good shooter— in between
stints in the Croatian army.

When Croteam released its SERIOUS SAM Technology
Test, they had modest expectations. “We hoped people
would like it. The reaction caught us unprepared,” says
Roman Ribaric, CEO of Croteam. What was initially "one
interview on GA-Source and a couple of posts on
BluesNews and VoodooExtreme” became two weeks of
nonstop press interviews and online posts raving about
the game.

How did this little tech test attract so many people?
Richard “levelord" Gray over at Ritual thinks "it’s the
essence of the genre, an essence that seems to have been
lost amongst all the technology and hype of today's
games. It's simple and pure; it’s efficient elegance in the
first-person shooter arena. It
reminds me of the original
DOOM.” Cliff Bleszinski at Epic
says, "It’s fun stuff, no doubt!

There's something beautiful
about unloading a boomstick
into a monster and watching
the gun fly back as the mon-
ster is knocked flat on its ass.

These guys really get the issue
of 'feel’ when it comes to gun-
ning down monsters in an FPS.

The demo has buzz because of
this factor. It's just fun as hell
to shoot things in this absurd
title!"

With the fame that it has
garnered, publishers and
licensees predictably took
notice and started lining up.

Winner of the SERIOUS SAM sweepstakes? Gathering of
Developers and their new O.D.L (On-Deck Interactive) line
of budget-priced games. While the technology and
resources O.D.L can provide is great for Croteam, this

move could be equally beneficial for G.O.D. by

Reality Check

NFS: Porsche Unleashed

A+

Starlancer

D-^

C-

* B-

Messiah

B+

B-

C+

Imoerium Galactica II

B-^

i B

Tachyon: The Fringe _

C-i-

C-t-

■ B

Star Treic Armada

□

B-

C+

B-

C+

NASCAR 2QOO

B-

Gunship!

C-

B-

C-

Ka-52 Team Alligator

C+

B-

c-*-

C+

Risk II

B+

C-

NEED FOR
SPEED: PORSCHE UNLEASHED,
extending EA Sports'
excellent track record with
the series. There weren't any
real bombs this month, but
that may be due to the
gaming press playing softball
with games like MESSIAH.
Reality Check welcomes
Gamers.com to the spot
previously occupied by PC
Games, PC Accelerator, and
Incite. Hope you have better
luck.

^ Indicates game has not been rated

SEPTEMBER 2000 • cjw.g;

CBUPUHR GAMINS WQHLB

IfYOU GET BUSTED BYTHE SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT IN MESQUITE, TX, GETAGUMPSEATTHE LITTLE SILVER PLATES ON THEIR SHOTGUNS BEFORE THEY TOSS
YOU IN JAIL. YOU MIGHT READTHATTHEY WERE DONATED BY ID, TIRED OFCEHING PULLED OVER IN THEIR FERRARIS, 10 DONATED SSO.flOBTOTKE SHERIFFS
OEPARTMENTAFEWYEARSAGO.ANDirSBEENSMOOTHSAfLINGEVERSINCE. .

The Latest Heaping Pile of Rumors, Innuendo, and Gossip

STEALTHMODE

■ ■■ FinanciaDy troubled Eidos is up for sale,
with EA rumored to be the new owner. Yes, the
$30 million Eidos poured into Ion Storm didn't
help, but the rumors of John Romero being
fired are wrong {or at least premature), Rumor
has it that Eidos did reject Romero’s idea for a
massively

SUB SIM
RESURFACES
SILENT HUNTER II
is under construe-

MECHWALKER 4 Is Activision
working on a game based on The
Empire Strikes Backl

people and 3 full teams, and they’re down
to less than 30 people.

Now that Sony has purchased
EVERQUEST developer Verant
Interactive, the circle is complete.

Verant was spun off from Sony’s 989
Studios during the development of
EVERQUEST, and now with the smashing suc-
cess of that game, Sony was all too happy to
lock up Verant’s titles, including EVERQUEST 2,
STAR WARS ONLINE, and some other unan-
nounced projects. What this means is that
these games are controlled by Sony now, so
you can kiss any X-Box or Dolphin ports good-
bye, Verant is going to produce another
EVERQUEST expansion to tide fans over until
EVERQUEST 2 is ready for primetime.

Could Activision have grabbed a Star Wars
license? All I know is, they’ve requested
footage of The Empire Strikes Back. It’s possi-
ble that LucasArts, which is focusing on
making games based on Episode One and the
next movie, have licensed out the rights to one
or more of the older movies.

Hasbro Interactive and Wizards of the Coast
have reportedly signed a developer to do yet
another online version of MAGIC: THE

GATHERING. Players
will be able to trade
their virtual cards
online, and if they tire
of the online game, they will be able to
swap their virtual card collection for a
duplicate collection of real Magic cards.
SILENT HUNTER 11 has resurfaced. Sim
fans will recall that SH II is being
designed to work in conjunction with
SSI's DESTROYER COMMAND, so it makes
sense that both would be developed by the
same publisher, Ultimation.

Bethesda’s sequel to DAGGERFALL,
MORROWIND, will ship with a full-featured
editor that allows players to create their own
adventures. The RPG scene may eventually
rival the shooter-mod community, with games
like NEVERWINTER NIGHTS, DUNGEON SIEGE,
and ARCANUM all coming with robust editors.

A lot of gamers are pointing fingers at
Irrational Games, blaming them for the demise
of Looking Glass, Irrational, the creative force
behind SYSTEM SHOCK 2, was working on a
new game for Looking Glass and dropped that
project to work on PS2 titles for Crave. This
allowed Microsoft to back out of their contract
with Looking Glass, which in turn led to
Looking Glass’ financial problems. What never
surfaced, however, is that Irrational was
unhappy with the money they were getting
from Looking Glass. That’s one of the chief rea-
sons they looked elsewhere.

From the trash heap of gaming his-
tory we bring you...

PRIDE ANO
PREJUDICE: You
are a young
woman of the
Regency
Period. Your
goal is to marry
the best possi-
ble match and
avoid spinsterhood. One to six
players, with each player having
varied attributes — beauty, wit,
grace, etc. You attend parties,
spread gossip, and keep an eye out
lor a wealthy bachelor.

September 1990

Interplay scored a major licensing
coup, securing the rights to the
hottest literary property for gaming
translation — J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord
of the Rings.

And they did a
pretty decent
job turning
Tolkien's
vision into
three role-
playing games.

Now, with the
film version of Lord of the Rings on
the horizon, the time is right for yet
another crack at a Tolkien game.
Who's going to score the license?
We've got our ears to the
ground....

September 1995

It was one of those awkward tech-
nological transition times in gam-
ing. We were moving from DOS to
Windows 95 and nothing seemed

Coming Attractions; EA.COM

Come September, gamers will get a glimpse of the
enormous implications of the Electronic Arts-AOL deal
sealed late last year. That's when EA's flagship online
effort — ea.com — moves from beta-testing into the
general public.

How does AOL play in? Internet traffic, and tons of it,
Upon launch, the America Online games channel, cur-
rently one of the most populated gaming arenas on the
Internet, will be run exclusively by EA. This channel will

serve the same content available through the Internet,
made AOL-friendiy. Expect an assortment of card and
parlor games, featuring some brand-new titles, with
more core-oriented online games making their debut
later on this year. These will include unique, multiplayer,
browser-based experiences using existing EA products,
and some massively multiplayer efforts, including the
mysterious-sounding MAJESTIC. Watch for more details
next month. — George Jones

to work right.

The few true
Wm95 games
that were out
were often
slow and
buggy, and get-
ting ouf old
DOS games to
work in the new environment was
a pain in the ass. Ugh. Good
riddance.

• SEfTEMBER 3000

COMPUTER BAHIKE WORLD

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THE CONSTANT THRASHING Of JOHN ROMERO’S DAIKATANA MUST BE ENOUGH TO MAKE HIM PUtUOUTTHOSE LUXURIOUS LOCKS.THE
CURRENT TALLY AT GAMERS.COM fS 49 REVIEWS, ONLY THREE OFWHICH ARE POSITIVE. SEE KWV.GAM£flS.COM/405347GAMf,B£WflVS&9

read.mej

Superfly’s Johnson

■ ■■The Laziest Men on Mars? No, no, no— more
like the Geniuses of the Universe, for it took
geniuses to find the glittering diamond hidden in
the lump of coal that is DAIKATANA. The mysteri-
ous Laziest Men pulled slabs of dialogue from the
game, rearranged it, and set it all to a funky beat.
The result? A tongue-in-cheek three-way sex romp
between the game’s heroes that is easily the funni-
est thing on this planet. Ever. We got headaches
from laughing so hard.

How will the cash-poor Hiro and Superfly pay
Mikiko for that pizza delivery? Check out this
month’s CD and hear the genius of the Laziest Men
on Mars for yourself. — Eobeit Coffey

( 3UCK /TPOmm ")

CGini PROFILE

IllllOn Onlinn Englishman behind X-CDM, MAGIC & MAYHEM, and the
JUlldll UUIIUIJ upcoming DREAMM\ND CHRONICLES speaks

Is THE DREAMLAND CHRONICLES: FREEDOM RIDGE inspired by X-
COM?

Yes, although DREAMLAND is just the latest development in the evo-
lution of Mythos Games' strategy games, X-COM was itself inspired
by our earlier titles such as LASER SQUAD and REBELSTAR.

What is the coolest thing about DREAMLAND?

There are so many cool things, but here's one. I get a lot of smug
satisfaction blowing the head off an alien and playing soccer with
it-passing from soldier to soldier-and still being able to meet the
mission objectives,

The pausable real-time combat in X-COM APOCALYPSE worked well.
Why are you returning to turn-based combat with DREAMLAND?

It is all to do with the feel of the game, DREAMLAND is set in a grim,
post-apocalyptic future where the human race is struggling for sur-
vival, With just a few soldiers, you have to succeed again and again
in every tactical situation, The intimate, tense atmosphere of
DREAMLAND can only be recreated with turn-based combat.
Additionally, the 3D system is far more useable because the player
can control characters from a third-person or first-person view, with-
out losing control of the situation.

I laughed out loud the first time I saw a cow being dissected by the
aliens in X-COM. What were the aliens doing?

That's a pretty good question, really. Cattle have been found
strangely mutilated with various bits of the anatomy removed, such
as the rectum [the aliens can have that part- MA\ or a tongue.

Some have blamed the government, but really it is those bug-eyed
aliens who were just trying to figure out which parts of the cow to
eat. They obviously hadn't found a McDonalds.

Ever seen a UFO?

Yes, of course, but my memory was wiped after seeing it.

Are there any aliens in X-COM or DREAMLAND inspired by your
mother-in-law?

Yes, the Ethereals.They turn up when least expected and they can
read your mind.

X-COM was responsible for more missing gaps in time than any
aliens could ever hope for. What made it special?

Difficult question. I think some of the random elements helped,
coupled with the interaction between the strategic and tactical lev-
els. We ended up with a game that I didn't know how to win-1
didn't know which were the best strategies or tactics, even though
I designed all the game's systems. That is what makes a good
strategy game.

Do you still work with your brother at Mythos? What's that like?

I still work with Nick, and together we manage the company. Its okay
these days— I am used to the humiliation of been bullied by a
younger brother.

Last question. How come there were no bathrooms in the X-COM
bases?

There are outdoor facilities. This does, of course, compromise the
defenses of the base.

cgw.gi

im • StfTEMBEil EOOD

COMPUTER GAMINE NBIIH

The 19305 ain't what they used to be.

Dogfight opponents online in cutthroat multiplay.

America lies in pieces and air power is

king. It's a shoot-or-get-shot-down world.

You'll dogfight ruthless air pirates.

Rescue saucy pinups. Dodge flak from

dicey femmes fatales. And mix it up with

Fly 11 tricked-out planes in 24, thrilling missions.

other aces online. But remember, one thing

stilt holds true— don’t get mad, get even.

Customize your win^ with rockets, machine guns and more.

II Wkw 1

Jl ^

HPl

iUg&ate ai^r registered

mJBff f/h

*r-.^^Hrr i/mU

■ ■ ■ , j) MiwsO Holes...

read.me ^hiiihhbbh

VETEflA^ PC-GAMES EDITOR DENNY ATKIN HAS RESIGNED AS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AT COmm GAMES MAGAZINE.
ATKIN, FORMERIY OF CGIV AND COMPOTE, IS MOVING ONTO A HANDHELD PDA MAGAZINE, A PERFECT FIT FOR A
GADGET FANATIC.

Team Fortress 2 Update

New TF1 .5 skins show where Valve is headed

■ ■■With little news coming out of Valve about its higlily
anticipated TF2— and with rumors circulating that the
engine was once again being retooled— we asked Valve's
senior software engineer, Yahn Bernier, to teil us where
things are going. He didn't comment on the engine, but he
did say ‘'TF2 will be a lot better looking than what we’ve
shown up until now. We will have the ability to put players
into a wider range of environments than what we've shown
in the past. ”

Those familiar with the project know that the goal of TF2

is to create a sense of being part of a war through an
extended campaign. Bernier says the scenarios are being
built around that level of complexity.

‘'TF2 will have both extended scenarios and single-map
scenarios," he says. 'Tt will have multiple map
campaigns/scenarios where the results of one are relevant
in the next. [Our new! Valve Player Persistence (VPP) ...
allows for more of the feel of a massively multiplayer RPG. "

TF1.5 will be out later this summer to tide us over until
TF2’s arrival next spring.

The new character skins coming for TFI5 show off much higher polygon counts. Valve will be rolling out several new models at the end of summer, including female characters.
These are the skins for the Medic, Heavy Weapons Guy, and the Soldier.

No One Lives Forever

■ ■ ■ Here's an idea whose time has come; a cheeky mix of Austin Powers and James Bond in
a '60s-era spy thriller laced with bits of THIEF and HAIF-LIFE. Shaken, of course...not stirred.

Under development at Monolith -
creators of the critically acclaimed SHOGO
-NO ONE LIVES FOREVER is the first game

to boast the developer's new Lithtedr 2.0 ^

engine. As a result, NOLF boasts plenty of /

technological advancements such as a 2 s

reactive difficulty level that adjusts to your I.- f :

playing style.

The Lith engine can also support smooth Jp® ' •'

transitions from indoor to outdoor environ- I '■ i

ments. Monolith is exploiting this by setting I -
the game in exotic locations all over the t- v'’''

world, from the Alps to the Carribean,

Northern Africa, and outer space. Some of the scenes are pretty wild, as when the main character
Cate Archer gets thrown out of a plane and has to kill a guy and take his parachute before

Female protagonist Cate Areher ts as -
hot as Felicity Shagwell from Austin
Powers 2. Let's hope she’s as much
fun to play with.

NOLF's storyline serves up plenty of spy genre mainstays, including an international counter-
terrorist group, UNITY, pitted against an international terrorist group, HARM; and a lead character
who totes around a bevy of cool 'gadgets.' But at least the game won't be a run-of-the-mill
shooter. The game's producer, Chris Miller, puts it this way; 'The game is very much a firsi-
person-action-sirategy titie." Look for NOLF later this Fall . -WIlim O'Neal

SEPIEMBER 2000 •

COMPUTER 6AMIN6 WORIO

read.me

pipeline

We know that game developers tend to use dartboards when determining release dates, so we
broke out with even bigger dartboards for the Pipeline. Sometimes, we’ll nail the release down
to the month; other times we'll give the developers some breathing room by using a general
season. Also, we'll highlight some of the more notable releases and pass some preliminary
judgement on them before the real reviews are written. Lastly, if you're a publisher, make sure
you tell us where your darts have been hitting so that we're not completely blind, okay? Send
notices to: cgwpipetine@zd,com

DARK REIGN 1! , *

ICEWIND DALE

Pandemic's ilARK

Sure, It’s competing

Q»

REION was a solid . . .

against OlASLO 11, but

- but underrated - 1 ....

this is authentic, old-

■ ' -v

a»

game. Now, they l// ^ ’

school BAD-, It's all

meld the proven '

about tactical combat

design/playability with a new slick-looking 3D

and dungeon-exploring.

engine. Maybe more gamers will

It'll give D&D fans a chance to explore the Spine Of The

pay attention, and make up for A

World, and feel like they’re in one of those RJt. .

the lackluster sales of their A

Salvatore novels.

previous titles.

’ .L

WfIRLORDS;

BAHIEGRY
The team behind
the great
WARLORDS games
is behind this,
but this isn't Warlords IV. tt’s an interesting
little mix with elements of HEROES OF
MIOHT & MADID, FANTASY 6ENERAL, and
even DIABLO. Will it ail come together? jg
We'll see.

THEY SAY

WE SAY

THEYSAV

WE SAY

4x4 Evolution 0.0.0.

Snrlnn 2001

Summer 2001

Loose Cannon Microsolt

Winter 2000

Aoe Of Empires il: The Connoerors MicrosDft

Summer 2000

Fall 2000

Manic & Mayhem 2: The Art Of Manic Befhesda

Sprinq 2001

Snrina 2001

Amartcan McDee's Alice EA

Winter 2000

Dec. 2000

Max Pavne C.O.D.

Winter 2000

Februarv 2001

Anachronox Eidas

Summer 2000

Sent. 2000

MechCommander 2 Microsoft

Sprinq 2001

Summer 2001

Arcanum Sierra

Summer 2000

MechWarrior 4 Microsoft

Fall 2000

Winter 2000

B-17 Flvinn Fortress KasiirD

Fail 2000

Fall 2000

Metal Gear Solid PC Microsolt

Fail 2000

Fall 2000

BalduPs Date 11 Intsmlav

Summer 2000

Sept. 2000

snsRirahMotor CKv Online EA

Winter 2000

7999

Battle Isle; The Andosia War Blue Bvte

October 2000

Neuerwlnter Nlqhts Iniernlay

April 2001

Summer 2001

Battle Of Britain Rowen

Winter 2000

No One Lives Forever Fox

Winter 2000

Dec. 2000

> Battle Realms Crave

Summer 2001

Oni Diimiic

Summer 2000

Fall 2000

Black & White EA

Summer 2000

Fall 2000

Pool Of Radiance II SSi

Winter 2000

Blair Witch Prolectfsl 0.0.0.

Winter 2000

Sprinu 2001

Praetorians Eidos

Snrina 2001

March 2001

1 Civilization: Cali To Power 2 Activision

Fall 2000

October 2000

Reach for the Stars Mattel

Summer 2000

Fall 2000

Clive Barker’s Undvlnq EA

Winter 2000

Nov. 2000

new Renublic: The Revolution Eidos

Winter 2000

Snrina 2D0i

Close Combat: Uteh Beach Mattel

Winter 2008

Winter 2000

Red Faction THD

Snrinn 2001

Snrina 2001

Combat nioht Simulator 2 Miciosaft

Winter 2000

Return To Wolfensleln Activision

November 2000

Nov. 2000

Comanche vs. Hokum Onnlm

Sorino 2000

Summer 2000

iJidfietiW Rune B.O.D.

Fall 2000

Nov. 2000

Command & Conouer: Red Alert 2 Westwood

Winter 2000

Nov. 2000

Sanity Monolitb

Summer 2000

Fall 2000

Command & Conquer: Reneqade Westwood

Fail 2000

Winter 2000

NEW Sea Dons Baltiesda

Winter 2000

Commandos 2 Eidos

Winter 2000

Nov. 2000

uiMom Settlers IV Blue Bvte

November 2000

Nov. 2000

Conquest: Frontier Wars Miciosaft

Fall 2000

Sid Meier’s Civilization III Hasbro

Summer 2001

^11 2001

Crimson Skies Microsoft

Summer 2000

Sent. 2000

Sid Meier’s Dinosaur! Electrunic Arts

Winter 2001

Oastrover Command Mattel

Winter 2000

Slnma Microsolt

Summer 2001

Fall 2001

Draoon's Lair 30 Blue Bvte

Sorino 2001

April 2001

Silent Hunter II SSI

Winter 2000

Summer 2001

1 Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridae Betfiesda

Snrina 2001

SimMars EA

Fall 2000

Snrina 2001

Duke Nukem Forever 3D Realms

Who Knows?

Dec. 2000

Simsvllle EA

Snrina 2001

Snrinq 2001

flunaeon Sfeoe Microssit

Fall 2000

Sovereion Sony Online

Fall 2000

Winter 2000

Echelon Betfiesda

Winter 2000

Squad Leader Hasbro

Winter 2000

Elder Scrolls: Morrowlnd Betfiesda

Winter 2001

•iJDflMM SUrTtak Otep SluctS: Thi F«1l<n

Sent. 2000

Sept 2000

Emoire Earth Sierra

Sorino 2001

Summer 2001

AfIMAiA Star Trek Vovaqer: Elite Force Activision

Sent. 2000

SenL 2000

Escape From Monkev island LucasArts

Fall 2000

Winter 2000

Startonia Eidos

Winter 2000

Nov. 2000

Evil Dead: Hail To The ffino THQ

Fall 2000

Star Wars Eoisode 1: Obi-Wan LucasArts

Fall 2000

Winter 2000

nvi II G4).D.

Winter 2000

Snrlnn 2001

Sudden Strike COY

Fall 2000

Sent. 2000

Freelancer Microsolt

Winter 2000

Snrina 2001

Summoner THD

Fall 2000

Biants: Citizen Kabuto interDlav

Winter 2000

dnSRinWTeam Fortress 2 Sierra

Summer 2000

Fall 2001

Halo Bunoie

Winter 2000

Januarv 2001

The World Is Not Enouqh EA

Fall 2000

Harooon 4 Hasbro

Winter 2000

Throne Of Darkness Sierra

Summer 2000

Winter 2000

Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2 G.O.D.

Summer 2000

Fall 2000

Tribes 2 Sierra

Summer 2000

Fall 2000

Hitman: Code 47 Eidos

Summer 2000

Sent 2000

Tronlco G.0.0.

Snrina 2001

Homeworid: Cataclysm Sierra

Summer 2000

Sent. 2000

WarCraft III Blizzard

SDrtnn 2001

Summer 2001

IHRA Orao Racinn Osthesda

Fall 2000

Warlords IV Mattel

Sprinq 2001

Snrina 2001

I’m Doino In Eidos

Fall 2000

October 2000

Waterioo Breakaway Games

Winter 2000

Klnodom Under Fire B.O.D.

Summer 2000

Fall 2000

Wizards & Warriors Activisiun

Winter 2000

Legends Of Might & Magic 300

Winter 2080

Winter 2000

Zeus: Master Qf Olympus Sierra

Fail 2008

Sept. 2000

• SEPTEMBER BOBO

CDHPDTtB BAyiHB WORIO

"It's the perfect real-time stratei^ ^ame...one of
the most important new RTS ^ames in a long time."

- Gamecenter.com
Rating; 8 out of 10

"...it’s the perfect title for jaded RTS fans
that need a breath of fresh air!"

-PC.IGN.com
Rating: 8.4 out of 10

"...oozes innovative ideas and gamplay..
gamers will appreciate this rare treat”

- Games Domain
Rating: Silver Medal

Pajesty is a fascinating and fun romp
lliof originality..."

Rating; Four Stars

"If Majesty helps set a trend, then 2000 might
go down in history as the year in which
gaming changed forever."

- Gamespot.com
Rating: 8.8 out of 10

9hts RsurvM. Mainly Is a liademaik ol Cylx
ICyMilors Slixlios, Inc. AH RigMs RestivM.

Age of Empires II: Age of Kings P/iudRod

4.5

Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear Red Storm

4.5

3.5

4.5

Thief; The Dark Project Eidos

4.5

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun Electronic Arts

Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast Interplay

Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed Electronic Arts....

4.5

Thief 2 Eidos

4.5

Soldier of Fortune Activision

2.5

Age of Empires: Rise of Rome Microsoft

Worms Armageddon Hasbro

Dungeon Keeper II Electronic Arts

4.5

EverQuest Sony

FIFA 2000 Electronic Arts

4.5

Total Annihilation: Core Contingency Cavedog

4.5

Nox Westwood Studios

3.5

NHL 2000 Electronic Arts

3.5

Railroad Tycoon II G.O.D....

4.5

Civilization: Cali to Power Activision

3.5

Heroes III: Armageddon’s Blade 300

4.5

Jagged Alliance 2 TalonSoft

4.5

NEW POLLING PLACE!

Vote in the Top 40 Games pell at www.comoutemam-
ina.com. The meie people who vete, the better the
results, hut please vete enly ence per menth.

I SEPTEMBER 2DQ0 • cgM.gan

T he early summer doldrums of gaming have struck thf
CGW Top 40, and struck hard. This month’s list ii
about as exciting as watching algae bloom in an aban
doned kiddie-poot, with nary a new game to stir the stagnan
waters. Thank the thunder god for the late-summer storm o
games that are sure to stir things up. On the ballot for nex
month: SHOGUN, DEUS EX, COMBAT MISSION, DIABLO 5
MDK 2, and more. Log on and vote!

GDMPOTER GRMINB WORLD

Ul util Ml W>1

Game to UJaljpliJn 2t0fl

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a'orafbfOfQrarOG^DromrrofooQnpfaagi'affrroracr:

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CIUILIZRTION IS NEAR COLLRPSE

AN HNCIENT CONSPIRRCV IS EMERGIN

0NLV VOU CRN STOP IT

FULL-SCENE ANTI-ALIASING

Animated Blood and Gore
Animated Vioience

EVIEW

nibes 2

We play the only te am shooter sure to ship this
year — and it racks I

by Robert Coffey

W ith all the new features and game
types, TRIBES 2 has one definite,
rock-solid carryover from its
predecessor— it’s a ton of fun to play.

A CGW squad recently engaged in an exclusive playtest of this massively multi-
player team shooter, and came away very impressed with what we saw. The game-
worlds are enormous and beautifully rendered, running the gamut from icy mountain
ranges complete with gently falling snow, to lush islands surrounded with water you
can use to your tactical advantage. The game will ship with a slew of new games,
including the one we played. Flag Hunters. A combination of CTF and Deathmatch,
Flag Hunters is a frenzied, every-chump-for-himself contest where slain enemies
cough up a flag you can grab and carry to a Nexus to score points. Once we were
done with Flag Hunters, we dished out some punishment in a quick deathmatch
because, well, just because we could.

We could write a couple thousand words about how cool we think this game will
be, or we could let the game speak for itself. Check out the action in these screen-
shots from some of our games, and we bet you'll start counting the days until TRIBES
2 ships.

. . .and how beautiful, too. With three layers of sky textures and immense peaks and valleys, you'll need
to use the vehicles in the game just to get arouni ..

The first thing that hits you is how huge the worlds are...

GEMHE: Multip layer Actmn

RELEASE DATE: 0 3 00

PUBLISHE R: Sierra Studi os ■ DEVELOPER: Dy namlx

CONTACT: www.tnties2.cam

...and to engage in vehicular duels. The vehioles
have been engineered to be easier and more fun
to pilot than the flying transports in the first
TRIBES.

Vehicular fun in TRIBES 2 is best expressed as
vehicular manslaughter - grabbing a ton of air
and landing on some hapless enemy schmuck...

... or dagfighting in the new air vehicles. As
Intense as combat was in the first game, the
addition of vehicles ensures that TRIBES 2
conflict will be even faster - and from all sides.

In Flag Hunter games, it's every man for himself.

(ram your slain
have to jump-jet
he Nexus, avoid-

fire...

...and laying waste to
those foolhardy enough to
stand in your way.

Of course, another strategy
is simply to slay in the
Nexus like this guy, and
ambush returning combat-
ants. stealing their flags
for yourself.

ground-to-air defense, you'll simply need
aim to lock on a target. Fire your rocket...

BoomI Pilot and plane explode
and come crashing down to earth.

your

contrail-spewing victim.

cgw.gjmespiil.com

CDHPUUH BRMIlifi WORLD

PREVIEW

TRIBES E

The gameworld environments
are tied to the separate tribes,
ieading to widespread confiict.

...and lace-oif with hos-
tile forces on barren

in lush tropi-
cal worlds...

...jump-jet down on
unsuspecting victims in
sandy island worlds...

...pursue enemy flan-
carriers across coastal
beaches...

Along with new
weapons comes some
new technology...

New Things
You'll Love In
TRIBES 2

For a nifty surprise attack, stand knee-deep In
some water...

...wait for an iiiisiispecting opponent to
appear...

...then activate the new Cloaking device to
quickly fade from view.

1. ONLINE VOICE
SUPPORT with sepa-
rate channels for
offensive and defen-
sive team members, as
well as for individual
vehicles.

2. NEW WEAPONS,

Including a locking
anti-air rocket launcher
and a melee weapon,
the Shocklance, which
will Inflict about 20%
damage In a frontal
attack, but which Is
Instantly lethal when
“backstabbing.”

3. NEW VEHICLES
Including a 4-wheel
scout ATV, a bomber
with individual stations
for team members, and
an assault vehicle that
allows gunners to
choose whlcdr turret to
deploy.

4. MOBILE BASES

allow you to set up
remote Inventory sta-
tions deep in the bat-
tlefield, even within
enemy territory.
Whether or not you
can respawn here has
not been decided.

5. A REVAMPED,
TRANSPARENT
HUD eliminates the
need to toggle
between command
screens and the
battlefield, allowing
you to stay focused on
the action.

Submarine

TiTai

Distnbuteil
Eacimirefy By

Developed Elf

eiLipse

Bcrategy First

www.strotegy/ifst.com

Wiiiclows' 95/98/2000
PC CO-ROM

■ Features three distinct civilizations to play. • A dynajnic underwater environment with 5 depth/elevalion levels.

• Innovative unit classes and structures. • Multiplayer action with up to 24 players.

Stores f

Submarine Titans stands ready to become
the surprise hit of the real-time strategy genre.
^ Game Industry News

Ever felt like the whole world was against you?
You’re about to experience deja vu.

As if Mother Nature wasn't enough to deal with,
now the number competitors you must climb over
to get to the top just increased by a few million.
Introducing 4x4 Evolution, the first game with
internet connectivity for heavy-duty off-road
competitions between Sega Dreamcast, PC, and
Mac users simultaneously. The world is far from
a level playing field.

ALL THE TOP SUVS AND TRUCKS FROM LEADING MANUFACTURERS TO CUSTOMIZE • l6 MERCILESS OFF-ROAD COURSES, EACH WITH THEIR OWN ACTIVE ENVIRONMENT, MUSIC SCORI

D DIFFICULTY • GO ANYWHERE GAMEPLAY - NO PREDETERMINED TRACK • ACCURATE PHYSICS. PHOTO-REALISTIC GRAPHICS, AND UNFORGIVING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.

Sega#Dreamcast,.

PREVIEW

□IPLOMATIC

IMMUNITY

New to CALL TO POWER 2: border
disputes. The pame map displays
nation borders. Cross into your
opponent's territory, and you’ll
get embroiled in a diplomatic
snarl. Be careful-failure to move
your units out of enemy territory
could cost you.

Call to Power 2

World conquest gets even more civilized

by George Jones

A good idea in real life and in science fiction
novels, space living doesn’t work out too
well in computer games. At least not in last
year’s CALL TO POWER. Realizing this— and striving to provide
a more consistently enjoyable game— Activision immediately
scratched space living from the game when they began hatch-
ing plans for the sequel.

That was just the beginning of the overhaul. While CALL
TO POWER 2 wiU play in a similar fashion to the original, the
game's designers— who are acutely aware of and motivated
by ALPHA CENTAURI's critical success— are not playing the
timid sequel game, but are overhauling almost every aspect
of the original best-selling design.

The Blame Game

In CALL TO POWER 2, Activision aims to capture a truer
form of diplomacy than any other game— extended, back-
and-forth negotiations with multiple possible outcomes. The
ultimate goal is to create a dialogue that more closely
resembles a conversation than a series of menu selections.

Accomplishing this won't be easy. The most important
aspect of CALL TO POWER 2’s revamped diplomacy model is
that it puts forth many more choices and options for
diplomatic maneuvering. You'll be able to select the tone with
which you address your rivals (friendly, condescending, or
hostile), and the huge range of demands and requests give
you a wider range of bargaining room. In addition to the usual
cease-fires and peace treaties, wannabe Kissingers will also
be able to request nuclear/biological weapons reductions and
a slew of other options. Wannabe Napoleons can barter for
entire cities.

If balanced properly, going back and forth with the various

world leaders will
be a blast. It
might start sim-
ply.. .the Russian
leader might
demand that you
give him the Gunpowder advance. You might reply that you’ll
give him Gunpowder, but only if he gives you the Writing
advance plus 100 gold. The Russian leader might then reply
that this is unacceptable, and you’d go on from there.
Hopefully, weTl see the kind of escalating, high-stakes, diplo-
matic tension that the gaming industry hasn't experienced
since Chris Crawford's 1986 geo-political masterpiece,
BALANCE OF POWER,

Finally... Scenarios

In previous versions of CIVILIZATION, you could never fully
trust your allies; since only one person could win the game, a
knife in the back was inevitable. CALL TO POWER 2, however,
will allow for allied victories, potentially creating some unique
dynamics. But this also raises some questions. When you are
allied with computer-controlled forces, will the most powerful
commander be in charge? Will you be able to combine forces
to coordinate your strategy? And how will the computer
manage in such a complex environment? Activision needs to
make sure they play-balance this irmovative aspect of the
game to the max.

The diplomatic and allied victories should allow the game's
other big addition— individual scenarios— to flourish. Imagine
playing the English in a WWII scenario, where the goal is not
to dominate everyone, but simply to survive. Or a Cold War
map that emphasizes checking the advance of communism or

GENRE: Strategy

RELEASE DATE: October 2Q00

PUBLISHER: ActivisioiL

CONTACT: www.activisiQn.com

SEPTEMBtll 2000 •

CDHPOTER GAMINS WOfill

PREVIEW

Ci'rate New Pi'opMal

Create Coiinter Proposal

Plioenicia

MagiiaiiimoiisKiiiil

proposal:

I coo gold so that you
I our ptospetfty.

Send Cottntf r Prepasal

capitalism. The possibilities are endless,. .and appealing.
Thankfully, Activision will be including a scenario editor with
the game.

Choose Your Own Adventure

In place of the space- and science-oriented end story of the
original game, CALL TO POWER 2 will feature several different
opportunities for victory. You'U still be able to win the game
with science and research; you’ll also be able to win via
economic or diplomatic means.

Since ocean living— an under-utilized aspect of the original
game— is replacing space as the end-of-game frontier, expect
one of the game’s endings to revolve around the sea. Here's
hoping that Activision doesn’t find itself regretting their
emphasis on aquatic living. On paper, it sounds compelling,
but like last year’s outer-space setting, it’s still an extra
dimension of gameplay and units to get used to.

As always, you'll be able to win the game the good old-fash-
ioned way— via brute force. Through the use of a nifty array
manager, you'll be able to create and align your forces much
more easily. The game’s new click-drop, right-click interface
will greatly aid the movement of your armies.

Da Mayor

Gamers accustomed to the tedium of micro-managing
cities— and the resources they harvest— will appreciate
Activision’s decision to eliminate the concept of workers.
Instead of moving your workers around the finite number of
surrounding terrain tiles, each city in CALL TO POWER 2 will
have a sphere of influence. Depending on the size of a city, a
certain percentage of every tile that falls into this area gets
harvested.

As a city grows in size, the sphere of influence will grow.
The spheres start off small, with eight or so tiles at the begin-
ning, but gigantic cities will likely have spheres of influence
extending to 48 tOes,

Specialists will still be avaUable to help give that extra boost
to a city's productivity, and Mayors— the game’s urban

CALL TO ARMS! The game’s army manager and improved interface should streamline
matters of war. Graphically similar, CALL TO POWER 2 will give you a slightly different
angle on the action than last year’s version.

TALK SOUP

The game's revamped
negotiation mode, which
allows for bartering and
bantering, could elevate
the standard for the
entire genre.

autopilot— can handle city development and management aU
on their own. Mayors can be turned on or off at will, and you
can even specify goals for the AI, so that it will focus its
efforts on population growth, production, or gold.

Plus Other Features, Like. . .

...the Cyber Attorney and the Moray Striker. New
urban advances like the VR Amusement Park and the
Cornucopia Vats (which replace the Beef Vats). New
Wonders like the Empire State Building (which
improves diplomatic relations) or the Appian
Way (which eliminates unhappiness). Stealth
units' ability to see all other stealth units.

Easier, more comprehensible trading.

Activision is serious about the CALL TO
POWER franchise, which, interestingly enough,
was the best-selling turn-based strategy game
on the market last year, according to PC Data’s
numbers. This is probably due to the more
mainstream appeal of a real-world-based game,
versus some fairly in-depth science fiction.

It's important for Activision to make sure they
get CALL TO POWER 2 out by their October
goal. Otherwise, they’re going to be going
head-to-head with two Sid Meier turn-
based juggernauts: DINOSAURS and
CIVILIZATION III.

Then again, given the original game’s sales,
maybe they’re not so worried after all.S33

[ PO

New Features
in CALL TO
POWEH 2

The Numbers
Racket

Turn-Based Strategy
Game Sales
(Source; PC Data]

game units sold

1. CIVILIZATION; CALL TO POWER 293,046

2. ALPHA CENTAURI 281,115

3. HEROES OF MIGHT AND MAGIC III 185,553

4. CIVILIZATION 2 Gold 171,495

1) ALLIED
VICTORIES Ousting
an opponent i$
easier when you can
both win.

2) SCENARIOS
Finally, strategy game
story-telling.

3) MULTIPLE
ENDINGS Scientific,
political, economic,
and military victory
conditions will make
the end-game more
interesting.

4) FEATS OF
WONDER Discover
the highest mountain,
or a new continent,
and your nation gets a
boost In morale or
productivity.

5) ARMY

MANAGER Invaluable
during extended
“police actions."

BEIIBE: Acton • RELEASE ME: 03 OG

Thor and Odin are alive and well, and living in an
UNFEAL world

by Thomas L. McDonald

Rune

H uge men wielding huge swords and warham-
mers as they fight giants, dwarves, and gods
just seems like a natural fit for an action
game. Mairy the concept to a heavily-modified version of the
UNREAL engine, give it to people who worked on HERETIC H,
and you really can't miss.

RUNE, the debut title from Human Head Studios, mines the
rich source material of Nordic myth and legend. You play as
Hangar, a young warrior growing to

manhood in a Viking
village. Carnack, an
evil warlord and fol-
lower of Loki, is
behind a series of
raids that have deci-
mated other villages.
After he kills your
father, you find your-
self sucked down a
whirlpool into the

Viking underworld. You must
make your way through the
land of the dead, the Goblin
lands, the city of the Dark
Vikings, the lands of dwarves
and giants, and beyond in
order to wreak your revenge.

Gameplay is a mix of com-

plex combat and puzzles, all from a third-person perspective.
Control is simple — one key for attack, one key for defense — but
the permutations can be quite complex. Moving as you strike
will create different types of attack; for instance, moving for-
ward will result in a full-bodied slash while moving backwards
yields an upward tlirust. You can create combination attacks,
but you'll have to properly time your follow-through. Combat
encounters are sensitive to maneuver and position, so you’ll
need to move around and look for weak points. Well-placed
attacks can take off a head or an arm, which can then be
scooped up and used as a weapon. Eighteen basic weapons—
plus some special weapons found later on— yield over 400
combat-specific animations.

Weapons are divided into Bashing, Axe, and Sword cate-
gories. Each weapon has different ratings for damage inflirted.
speed of attack, follow-through, and so on, so some may be
more suited to fast combinations than others. So far, the giant
axe and giant broadsword are both in place and mightily
impressive in terms of sheer size and animation detail. Each
weapon also has a special "rune power," giving it an added
attack value for limited amounts of time. These range from
vampire attacks that drain health from a target, to one which
turns foes to friends.

A final factor affecting combat will be a "bloodlust" rating. As
Ragnar kills, his fury grows until he finally explodes in a near-
unstoppable berserk rage. Balanced with the emphasis on posi-
tion and timing, it adds up to a tmique combat experience with
a much different dynamic than the usual hackfest where the
person with the fastest mouse clicking wins.

Human Head has squeezed even more eye-popping tricks out
of the UNREAL engine, including projected shadows and models
that dynamically scale to ensure the best frame-rates. The
biggest addition is a Skeletal Deformation and Dynamics system
that employs full hierarchical skeletons and meshes. "The
skeletal system not only allows us to have many more animations
in memory," says Lead Programmer Paul MacArthur, "but also
allows us to attach objects arbitrarily to any model, detect colli-
sions of objects with specific body parts, turn the head and body
to look at things in the game dynamically, and do rigid body
dynamics." The result is an engine that is to UNREAL what
HALF-LIFE was to QUAKE n.

SEPTEMBER 2000 • cgw.gai

RESPECT YOUR ELDERS...

OR KISS YOUR ASS

TH® SXaRBEARER

the CELESTiaL

Actual PC Game Screens

.•Un- unborn evil TI-iREATSNS TO DESTROY TOE UNIVXRSE...

Enter the Psycho Circus and transform yourself into the powerful KISS Elders from

Todd McFarlane’s comic book. Wieid a deadly arsenal of weapons to slay the endless

hordes of the vile Nightmare Child. Battle through the four hellish elemental realms to

lITHTtCH

face the demon seed itself in the final Nightmare Realm. T pt tttf riN'.ST AurtHT RFraiM

Visit 3PAWN.COM for more information on the KISS Psvcho Circus comic book and action figures.

KISS Psiclio Circus TfieNijMmiie Chilli, name and logs iteltideffltiki of IliiciIUHlnleiKln'g O ?OOOThiid Law Inleiactivt. All iighicrturveo.O 2000 TodOMcraitanePioIixlKins. Inc. Kli lights reserved.OSOOOKlSSCatalog, ltd. AJInghtsreuivtd.
SegaOmanoactneilhefaregiittred liadecnaitioialiademailiDl Sega Snieipnses. lid. Galhering olDevelaoersanO toOgamesaretiaOtmailicof Calbeiing ol Deveiocieis. Inc. 02000 GaineiingcfOevetopeti. Inc. All rights ineived.

'M;^24ra..

“A wildly original game world, and some
of the most frenetic action seen to date.”

— NextGen .Vfagazine. February 2Chx>

Sega

#Dreamcast.

www.kisspsychocirctis.com www.y'odgtimes.com 'www.crcmor.iict

Black S. White

)igma

Republic

page 70

Freedom Ridge . . . .page 71

Tropico

And they might give etnategy
games a swift kick in the ass

or years now, the battle hymn of the strategy game has been sung with just two
¥otes, both in the key of C. The bulk of strategy games were either variations on
the turn-based world-building of CiyfUZATION, or subtle spins on the real-time
world-bashing of COIiIl/IAin) & CONQUER. Just as this duotone drone was lulling us to
sleep, along come five new strategy games, from five veteran designers, all with radi-
cally new themes, original gameplay riffs, and— believe it or not— emotional depth.

SEPTIMBER 2000

Lionhead Studios creates a god game. ..in the
truest sense imaginable, by George Jones

Developer: uonread Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
ETA: Fell 2000

Designer: Peter Molyneeu):

Previous Dames: Populous, Syndicate,

Mage Carpet. Dungeon Keeps'

What’s the Big Idea? 'BLACK AMS VMTE is atone-
ment for all my previous game design sns.’ ss|^ designer
Peter Molyneaut. In our minds, this majestic strategy
game may do more than simply atone for his sins. Black
ANO WHtTE, scheduled for release h late Somber, fost
tn^ eloete the entire PC-gaming gene to new hei^.

ION THESEUENTH DAY

I The diurnal cycle runs in 20 minute
I intervals. The seasonal cycles, and the
I way your territory looks, depend largely
I on your godly methods. Cruel gods will
I witness dark, distorted landscapes and
I extended winters.

has a name and specific desires. Vour goal -
impressing them with your godliness - can be
accomplished through a variety of methods.
Satisfy their needs, uproot trees, or randomly
smite the innocent

■ ■ ■ Out of tragedy, faith is born.

Two parents stand on a sandy beach, watching their child swimming. Out of nowhere, a
gigantic whale surfaces and swallows the child. Distraught, the parents do what human
beings have done for tens of thousands of years: They pray. They pray for divine intervention.
They pray for God's help.

To the amazement of the bereaved parents, their prayers get answered in the largest
possible way. you get sucked through the cosmos and appear before them. They realize their
child is gone, but bask in the knowledge that someone or something heard tlieir prayers. And
their people now have a god to watch over them.

You know nothing more than what’s obvious: You are these people’s newfound god. Your
sudden appearance gives rise to some introspective curiosity. Where or
what were you before the desperate parents’ prayers were answered? And
who, exactly, answered their prayers? Do you owe your very existence to
these people? Or were you an out-of-work deity hanging out in some sort of
cosmic god-lounge waiting for your number to be called?

Get used to the questions. Right from this heart-tugging intro, BLACK
AND WHITE— an evocative god game in the truest sense of the word-
makes you wonder, think, and... feel.

^ 'I

Amazingly, Peter Molyneaux's design document puts forth just three
simple rules:

1. Belief is everything. If nothing believes in you, you are powerless.

2. In the areas where there is belief in you, you can interact with things. In
areas where there is none, you can do nothing.

3. Your creature wiil assist you in playing the game.

These rules provide the groundwork for Lionhead Studios' most critical

and daunting task: transforming and merging BLACK AND WHITE the
concept into BLACK AND WHITE the game.

They also exemplify the game’s open ambition to be both an experience and a game. More
rules would equal more constraints, contrary to BLACK AND WHITE’S goal of allowing the

player to play the game at their own pace, and in their own way.

Computer games typically exist on two planes— the (usually
traditional) gameplay itself; and an accompanying story that gets
you from level to level. Or battle to battle. The tricky part for the
extremely talented Lionhead Studios team has been coming up
with ways to keep the player motivated, involved, and directed—
without creating too much structure.

BLACK AND WHITE intricately connects plot and gameplay. The
story, which unfolds over five different chapters, is a majestic,
quasi-biblical tale that involves multiple peoples, other more
powerful gods, and decision-making. Plot and gameplay are
lightly and ingeniously woven together through the game's
primary play structures, Challenges and Quests.

Divine Intervention

Initially, the Challenges— all of which are optional— are simple. To begin with, you’ll have to
help your newly-inherited villagers construct your temple by uprooting trees and placing them
near the construction site (be careful not to crush the villagers when you drop the trees!).

Challenges are activated by villagers' prayers, an extremely effective,
often emotionally-provocative method for pulling you into BLACK AND
WHITE. It’s the perfect way to present the player with gaming tasks without
spoiling the fiction of the game. Even more importantly, the villagers’
prayers create some awe-inspiring moments that should effectively cast you
in the role of god. In-engine, letter-boxed cut-scenes and an engaging,
moody score further enhance this effect.

How you resolve the various challenges is up to you. At one point, a
mother prays to you to help find her lost little boy. Assuming he’s within
your sphere of influence, you can simply pick him up with your hand and
move him home. Or, you can pick up his sister and move her to his location,
where she'E lead him home.

Or you can simply ignore the mother’s pleas and let the child starve to
death. Not the humane option, but— as your devilish sidekick argues— do
you really want to spoil your followers? This could make life more difficult
for you in the future.

Successfully completing a Challenge results in rewards, which range
from helpful information to a higher birth rate. Tlie stories in the challenges
even loop back. At one point, two men pray for your help in building an ark
to explore the world. Helping them gather wood and food for their journey
pays off later when you move to one of the game’s later landscapes.

The Real World

The real-world challenge for Peter Molyneaux and Lionhead Studios is to
make sure that the Challenges serve two functions. First, they must provide
varied gameplay that helps the player get better at the game. Second, they
must teU interesting tales that emotionally involve the player and force
them to make tough decisions, such as being
pul into a position where they have to decide
between the lesser of two negative outcomes.

Or situations where helping one person could
possibly hurt another. These are the types of
decisions that could elevate BLACK AND WHITE
to an instant classic.

The more personal the chaUenge, the more
effectively BLACK AND WHITE will advance
its central concept— that of a fledgling god
who learns what it actually means to be a
■’capital G" God. Key to this concept is going
to be enmeshing players in the lives of the
villagers. The recurring characters and looping
plot seem to indicate that this is exactly
where Molyneaux and Lionhead Studios
are heading.

The game’s Quests are basically meta-Challenges that serve as the
game’s golden path. As you advance through the various challenges and
quests, you will be rewarded.

As with any god, your relationship with your followers is more than
important. As you undertake (or choose to ignore) the more gameplay-
oriented structures of the game, you still need to tend to your followers’
needs and impress upon them your all-mighty importance. After all, the
stronger their beliefs, the stronger you are.

In each village, a series of flags indicates your followers’ needs. So at
times, they may need more housing, food, or even sex. Your answer may be
to simply ignore them. Or. you can give them general instructions to build
various structures in different locations.

Complicating matters, as villagers start to get used to your presence, they
become harder to impress. At the beginning, uprooting trees and cracking
rocks in half will suffice. But as time goes on, you’re going to have to find
new and different ways of motivating your people. Some of these ways may
not be too nice.

Furtliermore, how you treat your followers has specific effects on their
performance and behavior. A cruel. Old Testament god who advances

through Challenges in harsh ways will see followers who work harder
but have less time to procreate. On the contrary, a kind, soft god will
have followers who procreate like rabbits, but who don’t work nearly
as hard.

If you make your people extremely happy, they’ll erect a Wonder in
your name. For instance, the Tibeta Wonder will deaease the desires
of all your different peoples, and make your shield spell stronger.

Villagers also serve another important function. By encouraging
them to dance and chant outside your temple, you accumulate mana,
which helps you cast powerful spells. But don’t make them dance
too long without feeding or healing them, or they’ll die of starvation
or exliaustion.

At the beginning of the game, you inherit a single village, but as the
game progresses, you’ll encounter different tribes, each of which has
their own strengths, weaknesses, and demands. In some ways, this
part of the game is similar to AGE OF EMPIRES; the Norse are good
Fisherman, wliile Celtic tribes excel at worship and farming. Wisely
choosing not to spoil the plot, Molyneaux and Lionhead are keeping
story details close, but this much is clear: Since faith is the game’s
only real currency, your people serve as important a role in the game

COVER STORY

IS you do. As the game’s story— which involves other gods
3sses. you’ll have to make critical
h villagers accompany you as you move
3stingly— and this may he a not-too-
lagers never engage in combat. War,
as BLACK AND WHITE appears to see it, is the providence of

rely on the

imber-two indicates, new villages often
e of power. Given your godly goal of
!r of followers, you’re going to have to
fie most unique— and important—

to aid you.

One of the game’s early Challenges involves journeying
through a valley where mystical, magical creatures lay. You
choose one, and ail of a sudden BLACK AND WHITE takes on an
entirely new dimension.

Initially there are three creatures to choose from: lion, cow,
or ape. As the game progresses, you’ll encounter all manner of
creatures, from a human-looking character to a Tortoise.
Depending on how you play the game, you may be able to
switch creatures.

The creature's main function is to serve as the living
embodiment of your spirit— the word made flesh, so to speak.
Your godly powers and range of influence are limited by the
number of your believers, but being a physical entity means
your creature can go wherever it wants, hopefully spreading
your word by impressing naive villagers with its prowess. The
creature is critical in helping you to extend your reach and
your presence. But first, you have to show it how.

When you first choose your creature, it is
tiny, scared, and shy. You must instruct this
magical creature. By attaching a leash to it
and showing it how to eat, drink, hold, and
throw objects, you help it grow. Teaching is
accomplished by the time- tested stick-and-
carrot method. If you want to teach your
creature that villagers are not to be eaten,
punish it by slapping it repeatedly. Similarly,
teaching your alter-ego to gather wood for
your people involves having it watch you
uproot trees and place them near the
Storage Pit, then tickling its belly or stroking
its head as a reward.

As your creature learns the skills you
want, it becomes more and mote
autonomous, to the point where it will
actually imitate you and take on tasks it feels
you would normally perform. You're going to
want to spend tons of time helping your
creature learn to help you.

This intelligent beast also helps you when
things get overly complicated. Part of the
decision-making process involves balancing
the time it takes to manage your little friend,
help your people live better, progress
through the challenges, and convert new
followers. A properly-groomed sidekick
makes the game a lot easier. For example, to
convert a new tribe, you might simply tether
your creature to the village and let the animal lake over. Good
creatures will impress the villagers by committing good
deeds. Evil creatures will impress the villagers by destroying
the village and eating the people.

Tills much talked-about aspect of BLACK AND WHITE should
make for some amazing moments. At separate points in the
game, your creature will make friends, or fight MORTAL
KOMBAT style (you can help it in these arena battles by
casting spells or showing it where to attack). It may even fall
in love.

In much the same way that American Beauty (and, some
would argue, THE SIMS) provided a provocative, biting take on
suburban ideals and the American Dream, BLACK AND WHITE
may be just as insightful and relevant a commentary on our
relationship to divinity.

Blind Ambition?

BLACK AND WHITE'S ambition appears to be unending.
Complimenting the game's story, open-ended play,
spellcasting, and character profiling is an online component
that will allow you to take your creature onto the Internet.
Here, gamers will be able to play in two different ways: in a
kind of online chat environment where the creatures can
engage each other in conversation or combat; or in a more
standard, multiplayer, real-time strategy game, where the
goal is to convert villagers to your faith.

The big question: Can Molyneaux and Lionhead Studios
pull all this off? The game almost certainly seems destined
to succeed; we'll have to wait untU later this year to find
out whether their efforts result in a very good game, or a
great one.

I SEPTEMBIR 2000 •

£) im -2000 0lu« ByttSoftwstg, Inc. No |iatlolllil([Mbll(atliin moybeteptojuceillnanyfMm.btoadcasl.liDnifsitediit itondoleil Inloony bcelgnlonguagewilbocjllliipgrniKdonolBlLiBBylo Sofrwire, Inc.

Rgniol ol Ibis pcoduci Is piobibllBd. 'TNE SETTIERB" Is o registeigd todemork ol Blue Bytg Softwoie, he. "Botlle Islo: Ibe Andosio Wai"oiid Ibe Bluo Byte logo oig tcodomoiks ol Blue Byls Sofltnce, Inc.

"Drogons bii" is c legisteied liodgmotk of Bluds Gtoup Lkniigd. All olher pcoduci nacres used k) Ifeis picbHcollon oci Ihe tcodecnotks ol thsic cespeclive coenponies. PcoducIs hen been submIlted In the ESRB end oce owoiling ratings.

IT’S A WIL D. WILD LIFE Flying horses, gigantic chameleon/girafie
hybrids, rhinos blessed with the speed of cheetahs - the units in SIGMA
will be limited only by your imagination (and the animal population].

The Ultimate Creation Myth, by Robert Coffey

Publisheri Microsoft * Developer: Relic Fnterteinment * ETA; 9001

Oemgner: Alei Gsden • Previous Game: Homeworld

Whet’s the Big Idea? It’s evdution as a game, end e game that evolves.

With blions of potential oeatire types, the mulb'player clashes should be fascinating.

■ ■ In SIGMA, a blender
is the ultimate weapon.

No, it's not a Mixmaster or a Hobart— it's a genetic blender,
a technology capable of creating fantastic new species by
I recombining the DNA

of existing, real-world
I animals. Imagine intri-
I cate archipelagos
I teeming with gigantic
I cheetah-lizards guard-
I ed by poison-spitting
flying snakes, or a
sweeping tundra with
packs of polar-friendly
rhino-wolves ripping
apart giraffe-gorilla
hybrids already half-
dead from the hostile
environment. Every unit in this game is created by the player,
promising an unprecedented degree of customizability as
animals are mixed and matched with the “what'll this do"
abandon of a demented ten-year-old with a chemistry set.

The difference here is that in lieu of beakers brimming with
chemicals, gamers will have access to roughly 60 base crea-
tures. These animals will be the only resource in the game and
they will exist in an actual ecosystem that players will have to
manage— extinction of vital species is a very real concern. The
concept of a living ecosystem branches throughout the entire
gameworld, with day and night cycles dictating the use of noc-
turnal hybrids for nighttime assaults; additionally, you'll have
to engineer units suited for the
varying environments, lest your
herd of killer polar bear-whales per-
ish in a futile attack on a desert
stronghold before they even see
combat- You'll also have to weigh
your animal supply against your
design wish list: Powerful creatures
like whales (which grant gigantism)
will be in very short supply.

Part of this game's allure— apart
from the lively 1930’s B-adventure-
movie motif— is that the results of
your mad doctoring are rarely pre-

dictable. Oh, you can pretty much guess what combining
certain animals might get you: Fuse a snake with a bat and
combine the result with a trigger fish and you'll get the
aforementioned poison-spitting flying snake. But with over
70 different attributes powering every creature in the game,
the unexpected is to be, well, expected. Who would have
thought that melding a chameleon with a giraffe would
result in a shambling behemoth of enormous destructive
power? Certainly not the game designers, who were as
surprised as anyone else.

While there are a slew of features on the "maybe" list, the
one we're most intrigued by is the Random Button on the
genetic manipulator. This button might unlock recessive,
hidden abilities like fire-breathing.. .or, it could just screw up
the creature entirely.

Though SIGMA is in the very early stages of development,
we couldn't be more excited about its potential— the fact
that it’s being developed by Relic Entertainment, creators of
the very innovative HOMEWORLD, is even more reason to be
hopeful that the game will fulfill its incredible promise. Relic
changed the way gamers thought of 3D with HOMEWORLD,
and they seem poised to do the same with unit creation this
time around.

Get Off Your Toys and Join NetRacelive.Goni

RACETOWIN

ANEWCAR

This isn't a game. This is real. Net Race uve snatches

up real tracks, capturing real races and shoves them down the
internet and directly into your computer. Then we bombard you
with lap after lap of white-knuckle action at 200 MPH where your
competition is professional racecar drivers in real events and not
some computer junkie in Idaho. Who cares if you can beat a

WeVe not impressed that you can outrace your friends.

Step up to the big leagues. Race with the pros at

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Details At WWW.NETRACELIVE.COM

Developer: Eli»r Studios * Pufalieher: Eidos Intersctivs * ETA: 04 00

Designer: Demis Hasses * Previous Game: 'Hieme Perk

What’s the Big Ides? Become the next president of e fictionel, Swiet-style state

in the tradititiiel way: throi^ bribery, blackmail, and extortion.

be going into the project

ffS-r )

CMIe IB IM

Why leave power
politics in the hands of

policy wonks?

They don't know how the game is played. If you want to see real
politics in action, try raising support for a party boss in a former
Soviet state. Or, for those who can't swim in handcuffs, you can
experience the same thing and more in REPUBLIC: THE
REVOLUTION, without the long-distance commute to Moscow.

Far beyond a mere political simulation, REPUBLIC combines ele-
ments of SlMClTY and GANGSTERS into a huge, complex, 3D world
where lying, cheating, blackmail, and extortion are all fair game.
The goal is simple: Become the next President of the fictional
Republic of Novistrana, by any means necessary.

Players choose their character from one of five fields: politician,
businessman, criminal, religious leader, or general. Starting off with
one supporter and a small headquarters, you try to gain power by
influencing prominent citizens such as TV stars and archbishops.
When your powers of persuasion run dry, you can try less ethical
means such as brainwashing or blackmail You can behave as ruth-
lessly or as compassionately as you want, as in many of Peter
Molyneux's games, but every decision has its consequences.

With the support of those loyal to you, you'll start to influence
the general population. You'U have hundreds of potential actions
to choose from: Organize a rally, rig a soccer match, arrange
secret police hits, or broadcast your message on the nightly
news. Meanwhile, up to 16 other factions (human or AI) are try-
ing to stop you and seize control for themselves. And then
there's the President, who’s not going to sit idly by while
you try to depose him.

The design for REPUBLIC is certainly ambitious, but the
graphics engine is equally impressive. Built from scratch to
render millions of polygons in realtime, the engine will
reportedly allow free movement in cities with thousands of
people wandering around. According to Che developers, you
can zoom smoothly from a satellite view of Novistrana, to a
dose-up view of the dew on a flower in a window box. If
that sounds a bit like the engine from BLACK & WHITE, give
yourself a gold star. Demis Hassabis— a programming wun-
derJr/nd who co-designed THEME PARK with Peter Molyneux
at age 17— wrote much of the engine for BLACK & WHITE, He
left Lionhead to found Elixir Studios, the English develop-
ment studio making REPUBLIC.

Given the challenges inherent in the design, it’s not likely
we'll see this game by its scheduled winter release. Once it ships, it
will be another thing to see if the U.S. market embraces a strategy
game based on powermongering in a fictional Soviet-style state. But
for sheer originality, scope, and ambition, REPUBLIC has our vote.

Iit»iiii] (Idms

Mighty Mythos turns back the clock. ..in style,
by George Jones

I ■ ■ It’s X-COM with
shocking graphics, an
even stronger story,

destructible environments, first-per-
son perspective, and the Men in
Black. And no real-time mode.

It’s FREEDOM RIDGE, Mythos
Games' (makers of the original X-
COM} evolutionary, old school, turn-
based strategy title. It's our dream
come true.

The first of what could be a series
of several DREAMLAND CHRONICLE
games, FREEDOM RIDGE is set in a
post-apocalyptic world. Aliens have
ravished much of the planet, quaran-
tining humans into small reservations
that have been increasingly whittled
into smaller chunks of land.

Much like X-COM, FREEDOM RIDGE
moves along three different paths.

'* From the global view, you identify
enemy crafts, intercept them, and
send infantry forces to go in after any remaining
aliens. As you move along, you’ll begin to put togeth-
er the pieces of an immense story. ..and hopefully to
turn the tables on the alien menace.

The game's rotating global view is vintage X-
COM— you can see the borders of the human reserva-
tions and the ever-expanding alien territories. Various
icons indicate cities, military bases, and enemy fortifi-
cations. To prevent the enemy from spreading, you’ll
have to intercept alien craft as they try to land and set
I up shop in new territories.

Much like Mythos' original hit, when you scramble
I fighters (or with enough research, your own space-
ships), you give your aircraft specific instructions. In
FREEDOM RIDGE, this means a series of turn-based
instructions as to whether to attack or evade, and how
far away from the ahen craft your ships should be.
Initially, the alien craft are more powerful than your

Osueloper; Mithos Games • Publisher: Bethesda * ETA: February 2000

Designers: Julian arxi Nict Gollop • Previous Games; X-Com s«>es. M^ic & Mayhem
What's the Big Idea? Julian arid Nick Gollop aim to recreate X-COM, one of the most amazing
PC game experiences in die last ten years.

RQgiffi

’3l^&. d'^e-e-n f<f^$]nf '^ 0 '^ w4i,
)^'ij Y^ife^ Will

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COVER STORY

jet ships. But the occasional take-down, and the resultant ground combat, will help
you turn the tide.

Once you shoot down an enemy craft, or if you receive a report of alien activity in
one of your cities, you’ll outfit your squadron and send your troops into combat. This,
the most intense and important aspect of the game, is also very similar to X-COM.
Each of your units has a certain number of action points, with which you can move
them around, crouch, kneel, and attack. You can even leave a certain number of
action points in reserve that will allow your troopers time to react to enemy move-
ment. There is one major difference between the two games, however; tremendous
3D graphics.

For a turn-based game, FREEDOM RIDGE boasts a remarkable game engine
that not only looks attractive, but is a fully-interactive 3D environment. This
means that if you know that aliens are in the kitchen of a house, you can now
use your mortar to blast your way through brick walls to spring an attack
on them.

Each soldier is rated in eight different categories, from health to bravery to
strength and psionic abilities. Unlike X-COM (which promoted troops based on
experience alone), as your troopers die, you'll make the decisions about who
replaces whom in the command chain. Based on leadership ratings, comman-
ders will be more or less effective: at times, leaders will even be able to assert
their morale in order to resuscitate less-veteran soldiers who get spooked by
the aliens.

Hopefully, the ground-based action won't become tedious, as it did toward
the middle and end of the X-COM games. To that end, Mythos is including
many different elements that should keep ground attacks interesting, like
many weapon types and vehicles that can be driven around during combat.
An automated attack-mode wouldn't hurt.

Additionally, the game's pacing will also throw varying, more strategic
missions at you. For instance, to take out an alien base, you may have to go
in and take out the power supply for that base first.

As you succeed in ground-based combat, you’ll scavenge extra supplies
and resources for your squadrons. You’ll also be able to research both
the aliens and their fancy technologies, and in the process, unlock the
game's story.

The key alien menace here is the Sauron, the aggressive, rapidly-expand-
ing, dinosaur-looking race that has taken over the earth. These creatures are
breeding new plants and animals.. .all of which you'll encounter as you play
through the game.

But as the game goes on, you'll encounter another alien race and even the
mythical Men in Black (who, coincidentally, were supposed to appear in the
original X-COM, but were stripped-out early in development). Unfortunately,

determining the intentions of these other
factions isn't going to be easy. Mythos is
emphasizing more story this time around,
and from an early look at the plot, get
for an X Fiies-type ride that will
involve espionage, diplomacy, ballistic
missiles, and Dreamland, also known as
Area 51,

As you expand, you’ll take over alien
bases and build new bases of your own,
piece by piece. But protecting mankind
becomes more imperative in FREEDOM
RIDGE; your scientists and soldiers are all
drawn from the human settlements. Allow
the Sauron to capture your cities, and you’ll I
have a smaller, inferior talent pool to
recruit from,

DREAMLAND CHRONICLES: FREEDOM
RIDGE should be out in February 2001.

IPTEMI

2Q0B •

dictator is complete without a tew disgusting
personal flaws.

generates a lot
on a

Uien soak them with fancy
restaurants and friendly brothels.

Developer; PopTop Software • Publisher: G.0.0. • ETA: March 2001 ,

De^ner: Phil Steinmeyer

PrevriouB Games; Heroes of Might S Magic. Railroad Tycoon li

What's the Big Idea? The creators of RAILROAD TYOXJN II offer a new on the
reel-time strategy theme by putting you in control of your own Caribbean i^end. How
long can you exploit the island's riches before the citizens revolt? Stock 14 ) on Cubans and
graenbacis while there’s time

■ ■ If you thought
SIMCITY was only good
for inflicting floods and
earthquakes on innocent
computer people, then
this could be the game
for you...

TROPICO is an empire-building game that doesn’t just allow
you to be nasty, it positively encourages it. Instead of being a
benevolent leader whose goal is to improve the lives of your
subjects, you play a dictator on a fictional Caribbean island
whose goals are money and power.

You create your own dictator, but establishing yourself as
the next Fidel Castro or Idi Amin is only half the battle.

Players are also responsible for creating farms, an industrial
base, housing for their population, and other structures that
will generate income, make people happy, and expand their
own dictatorial sphere of influence.

Gameplay involves creating and managing buildings and
dealing with political issues, but the main focus is on the
island’s inhabitants. “Control is not exerted so much by the army
banacks, it’s exerted by the actual soldiers themselves,’’ says
PopTop president Phi! Steinmeyer. There are about 50 unit types in
the game, such as doctors, bankers, and soldiers, and each has near-
ly 50 traits and statistics that coalesce into unique personalities.

Even the dictator has personality strengths and weaknesses, forc-
ing the player to role-play instead of serving as some impersonal
god-like being who tinkers with things from on high. Steinmeyer cre-
ated a dictator to show us how it works, and we ended up with a
communist leftist author who had diplomatic skills and a bonus on
alcohol production. Then Steinmeyer
chose the negative traits. “We’ll
make him alcoholic and give him
Tourette’s Syndrome so the annual
New Year’s Eve speeches are a little
more entertaining,’’ he chuckles.

These initial traits set the tone for
the entire game, as they determine
where your island is situated on the
capitalism vs. communism axis, and
the religious vs. military axis.

wDa9

Peeling back the
layers of PopTop’s
banana republic sim.
by T. ByrI Baker

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port for the rebel cause. If he recruits enough soldiers, he can launch an attack on
palace. Other times, unhappy citizens can turn against you, and the next thing yot
know, there's a popular uprising going on.

And what makes citizens happy?

Money, of course. A strong economy
means you can pay your people liighet
wages and give them access to things
they want, like advanced education. To
make money, players can sell goods or
go for the big bucks by encouraging
tourism. "It takes a lot of corn or sugar
to equal what one American tourist
staying in a S300/night room can rack up
in a week or two," says Steinmeyer. The
downside is that tourist structures like
grand hotels and casinos are expensive
to build and require a skilled work force.

Tourists also need a lot of variety and low
crime rates, or they won’t stay long and
they’ll tell their friends what a crummy
time they had.

While the developers have focused on
people, there is no provision to directly
control the inhabitants of the island.

"Your interactions are based on the build-
ings and the politics of the game, but
you're trying to use those to influence the
people," says Steinmeyer. Radio and tele-
vision stations are a good example, as
players can use them for multiple
purposes. Religious leaders can broad-
cast religious programming, and players
looking for a quick buck can select pop
music and other commercial program-
ming. Of course, this works both ways,
and if the rebels seize your broadcasting
stations, they can use them to gain sym-
pathy and awareness for their cause.

Island Life

The islands themselves are modeled in
terrific detail, with complete weather
models and deformable terrain that actu-
ally affect gameplay. Fluffy clouds that
would serve as pure eye-candy in most games drift over the island and deposit rain,
"When they hit a hill, they tend to drop the tain on the near side of the hill," says
Steinmeyer. He demonstrated by calling up a rainfall overlay that covered the island
and showed wet areas in green and dry areas in red. The game will have several such
overlays that will help show everything from where to plant certain crops to rebel
zones of control.

Steinmeyer then showed us how the deformable terrain makes a difference by zoom-
ing in on a small pit mine in the center of the island. As he sped up the action, the
little miners went into high gear, and the pit they were digging slowly increased in
size. "That does environmental damage and hurts tourism in the surrounding area,"
he observed.

Good as TROPICO looked when we saw it, it was still about nine months away from
completion, with PopTop shooting for a March 2001release. They still have to add much
of the political model to the game, and they also want to incorporate many special
features, such as Edicts and Papal Visits, Edicts will be very powerful, but you won't
be able to use them very often. Religious leaders can request a papal visit, while mili-
tary-oriented leaders can declare martial law to quickly quell a rebellion. If the remaining
portions of the game come together as well as the elements tiiey were able to show
us, TROPICO could turn out to be a warm Caribbean breeze that will freshen the
strategy genre. ^<> 1 ',’/

’•ttjIiC''' FI-

ON JULY 20th,
THE GAME
ISN'T EASIER,
YOU JUST

m GOT BETTER.

Get it at Best Buy.
Electronics Boutique.
Fry's Electronics, Fred Meyer

www.saitekusa.com

FALL 2000

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^FRlENDLXr^MNtPOTENULOCALS

DIABLO II

It tells me that Diablo II is not a game I will finish playing
and never touch again.

My ego, which acquiesced long ago, wonders how and why.
How does such a simple premise become so engaging? Why
can’t I quit?

DIABLO II REVIEW

Travel in style The wayiioint syslem, enolhor new addition to DIABLQ II.
allows you to quickly move to individual sub-areas without having to do a lot
of walking,

Mad Skills Tho interface lor the character stat and skill menus. Notice
that tho skills are divided Into tabs, which organize the skills and spells
by type.

L«Vlk.1UkAIT

WAVf^lHT

The answer is simple. DIABLO II transcends its individual
features and becomes an experience that is so much more than the
sum of its parts. If you played the original, you already know the
genius in game design that I'm talking about. In almost every
instance of this sequel, that genius has been extended, upgraded,
and enhanced in all the right ways.

Once again, all. of the maps, items, and monsters are randomized
each time you start a new game, meaning that once again, you can
forget about memorizing the locations of the best magical weapons
or most powerful creatures.

High on my list of favorite improvements is the complete lack of
load screens. Blizzard figured out a way to pre-load the areas you
are most likely to visit from any given location, so that when you
step through a portal or move into a new area, you don’t have to
wait 60 seconds for the new sector to make an appearance.

New PC gamers will probably take this feature for granted.

Don’t. I went back and played some of the original game and was
instantly struck by how much wind the load screen took out of my
sails. Back then, however, losing momentum was one concern
DIABLO— which single-handedly revitalized RPGs— didn’t have to
worry about.

The skills are a welcome addition. Rather than hunting around
for books to learn spells from, you now earn points to inaease your
skills when you advance levels or complete certain quests. Some of
the skills are passive; once learned and activated, they provide you
with benefits that don't drain your magic supply.

Tied into dependency trees, all of these skills have minimum
level requirements, which adds an extra dimension of strategy to
the game. As you level up and earn points to spend on your skills,
you'll want to build up your lower-level skills and spells in prepara-
tion for the branch of higher-level skills and spells you'll eventually
want to cast. So you need to figure out an overall strategy (defense
or offense? Fire or ice?) while your character is relatively new.
Given the number of skills and spells compared to the number of
points you receive to activate and upgrade them, you can count on
a fair degree of specialization.

Consider that you can convert your single-player characters into
LAN multiplayer characters, and that your friends can do the same,
and that you can play cooperatively to beat the game (more on that
later). Then, think of all the possible character combinations you
and you friends could come up with that would compliment each
other, „hey, wait— don’t go— I’m not done yet.

Part of DlABLO’s role-playing genius lay in the unique strategies
required for each character. This sequel improves upon that.
Whereas originally, all the characters had access to
the same list of spells regardless of class, DIABLO n
implements completely different spells and a new
addition— skills— for each character class.

You may want to make a point of playing each
character class (see sidebar) for most of the first act
before deciding which character you want to hunt . • , •’

Diablo with in the single-player game, Each offers
unique benefits and challenges and, as in the origi-
nal game, a distinctly different experience, ■■■' ^

UV 9dAtlTY B»*T$

No more needle in the haystack These boots
might be hani to find without the new ilcm-hlghlight
feature. Now, you can decide what to take and what to
leave before you pick the first item up.

Vow experience leachee
you wetl.

In almost every way. Blizzard has created some nifty improve-
ments. Locating objects on the ground is easier thanks to the ability
to highlight all items using the Alt key. To repeatedly attack a tar-
get, you can hold down the mouse but-

t ton (although occasionally I find myself
clicking away; it’s more visceral that
mayl.

Gold no longer takes up inventory

■ • slots, but is managed in a separate area

* ' \ ' in the inventory screen. For that matter,

^ “ you also have a private stash box in

town (even in the multiplayer game), in
you can tuck away a few items

The game still features a slew of
magic weapons and unique objects. A
new “socketed" item class has been
added, which allows you to modify the
attributes and properties of an item by
Kc i«achn> adding gems and skulls (which can be

. found on dead bodies and in certain

. \v. . shrines) to the available sockets.

On the downside— and this has been
■ - ■ the primary bone of contention with

Are you experienced? hi addition to healing and mana shrines, there
are now experience, resistance, and gem shrines as well. This Paladin will
gain added experience from every kill until this shrine's effect wears off.

I SEPTIMBER 20e0 •

CaMPBIER tAHIKt NIEllI

Amo' Anct^fe/' i

that enemies can sheet across
and hushes lor them tu hide in.

In the Harem In

addition to the wide
open outdoor areas,
there are plenty of
indoor and under-
giound areas to
conquer as weii.

Desert for Dessert The desert levels are
fairly open and make tiic iietfcct place for this
Necromancer's private army to make a stand.

than makes up for any deficiencies. You can play all
the same levels and complete all of the same quests
found in the single-player game, but you get to
bring help.

Don't think for a second that adding more players to
the game will make things easier. In fact, adding
players to the game makes things much, much harder.
As the game demonically informs you when extra
players join your game, the more players in a game,
the tougher and more resistant to damage the mon-
sters get.

Two different multiplayer games exist— LAN and
BattleNet. In an effort to eliminate the hacking and
player-killing rampant in the original game, Blizzard
has coded part of BattleNet so that charaaers who
play here exist only on their servers. This means that
you can play multiplayer with your single-player
characters as long as you play on a LAN or on one of
the open character BattleNet game servers, because
your online characters cannot be used in the single-
player game.

This wouldn’t really be a problem, but BattleNet
kept going down every ten minutes or so due to the
high load. Granted, there were usually forty-five thou-
sand connections at a time being reported by the
server, but if you are going to offer a service to paying
customers, you need to make sure that it works. Expect
this to get better once things settle down a little bit...or
when Blizzard adds more servers.

Like every other aspect of the game, multiplayer—
which works really well with the new skill sets— works
in such a fantastically enjoyable way that you’re going
to find yourself (re)experiencing that good old shiver as
you relapse into DIABLO addiction,

I am happy to report that the original game was no
fluke. The gameplay still holds up, particularly with
Blizzard's ingenious additions. Once again, DIABLO U
is the standard by which other games of this kind will
be measured.

Welcome to the Jungle 1

The jungle levels feature rivers |

gamers— DIABLO n does lack a traditional save func-
tion. The game saves map layouts, but not map states,
so if you don’t find a waypoint (which occasionally
requires some serious searching) and you Save and
Exit, you will be forced to le-do the same dungeon
maps you had already partially or completely complet-
ed, which can be quite large. This is still the case
when you use the Town Portal.

This is particularly a problem in the humongous jun-
gles of Act m, where the waypoints are few and far
between. A higher number of waypoints, or the ability
to fully save the game at any time, would have fixed
this. Also, since the game is constantly saving, there's
no mechanism for backing out of stupid decisions.

At times, this can be extremely irritating, but I did
find that not being able to undo mistakes added extra
tension to the game. Though, isn’t that why the game
features Hardcore mode, where if you die, your charac-
ter is irrevocably gone forever?

One other quibble: The game's quests, while still
quite rewarding and handled very well, occasionally
end in anticlimactic fashion. Not every quest has to
end with a big bang; but you should get skills, experi-
ence points, or a cool movie as a bonus for completing
a quest. This doesn't happen all the time, though. In
the second quest in Act ID, for example, you recover
the Gibdinn Blade for a town. When you return it to
them, they basically tell you “Great. Thanks. Oh, look
at the time...gotta go. Buh-bye." Similarly underwhelm-
ing is Tainted Sun, the third quest in Act H.

Gamers are also encountering a bug involving the
Summoner quest near the end of ACT H. A patch fixes
this, but creates another problem within the game.
Knowing Blizzard, they’ll fix all this (and more) by the
time you read this.

Multiplayer DIABLO H, when it's working right, more

The Barbarian
A huiking brute with the
strength to wield twe
two-handed swords, one
in each hand. The
Barbarians' skills involve proficiency with
specific weapon types, powerful baffle
tactics, and thundering war cries that
frighten ycur enemies and strengthen
your allies.

The Amazon

The closest thing to
QiABLD's flogue, being
rooted in bow and spear
tactics. An interesting shift hers is that
each bow you find no longer comes with
a bottomless quiver of arrows. Arrows can
be found or purchased. Either way, make
sure you've got a good supply of them.
The Amazon is a powerful member ol any
raiding party due to her ability to inflict
large amounts of damage without ever
getting close to her

The Paladin
A holy warrior whose
faith both protects him
and aids him in dispatching enemies.
While he's able to learn combat skills like
the Shield Bash and Zeal, most of his
power comes in the ability to reshape his
aura as an offensive or defensive weapon.
The Paladin's aura has the ability to
effect other members of his party as well,
adding to the power el the entire group. A
single Paladin can raise the attack rale
lor your entire greup. reduce the effec-
tiveness of all enemies near your party,
or add resistances to all friendly players
and NPCs. For obvious reasons, it's easy
to like this character.

The Sorceress

The full-time magic
user, her spells revolve
around the forces ol the
elemeois: lire, ice, and electricily. She
con use many ol the spells that were
found in the oiiginal game, as well as
some new abilities, including being able
to change the rate of her mana rei^arge.
While lacking hand-to-hand fighting
prowess, a lone Sorceress can nonethe-
less take on large groups of enemy
creatures and eliminate them with her
powerful spells.

The Necromancer

He has spells that
revolve around curses,
poison, and bone, and
has the ability to raise the bodies of
fallen enemies os undead soldiers. Tbese
dark spells are incredibly powerful, a bit
morbid, and a whole lot of fun to cast
against unsuspecting foes. Cast terror,
confuse, or weaken on your enemies.
Poison them or use corpse explosion to
damage a greup engaged in combaL
Raise the dead and send them into battle
ageinst their former allies.

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Fi^ e new civilizations to lead or conquer: Aztec, Mayan. Huns. Spanish,
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the Hun, El Cid, Montezuma, and the Battles of the Conquerors.
Your challenge: Expand your empire and rule the world.
uiwui.microsoft.comfgamesl conquerors

DIABLO II S RATEGIES

by Thierry Nguyen,
Robert Coffey, and Alex Handy

SEPTEMBER 2000

Y OU probably just want to rip
into DIABLO II right away and
start thwacking the Fallen left
and right. Simmer down,
While you’re waiting for the
game to install, peruse this
guide, and see how you can
make maximum use of the
different character classes, and get some
general hints on how to succeed in the single-
player game before moving on to the BattleNet

sounding weapons? Let the market be your
guide. Try to make both items equal in value
(either by fixing them or by using one in com-
bat until their durability is the same), Then,
see how much cash each one is worth. You'll
probably want to keep the more expensive
item. If their costs are nearly equal, then that's
when it's time to flip a coin.

■ Magic-users should always cast their pro-
tection spells in town. Once cast, head over to
the local healer for a much-needed refiU of the
old mana pool.

■ If you find any set items while playing on
BattleNet, remember that they're extremely
valuable to other players. Try visiting some of
the trading rooms after your game. You can
probably get a pretty nice price for your green
items from other players who are close to com-

Pl®^ing a set.

""" ■ ■ Although

• magical

' weapons are

•V more useful and

Wi valuable, socket-

■■ ■' ed weapons

' ,, make for solid

back-up arma-
ments. Try to

+ * j

fmd an axe or a
, . y sword that has

three sockets,

iirT'inmiin*'' ‘ ' and put an

emerald, a sapphire, and a skull in it. That way,
each swing lets you freeze, poison, and sap life
and mana from your opponent, For shields, use
a diamond and an emerald to boost all of your
resistances. Finally, put a skull in a helm for life
and mana regeneration, plus a gem for whatev-
er stat you feel like boosting.

■ Never underestimate the power of a
Paladin, If you're playing online and you don't
have a Paladin in your party, you'll be at a dis-
tinct disadvantage, You'll understand why the
first time your Paladin casts Thorns in a net
game,

■ Use mercenaries as cannon fodder. They

Slngle-playet: The most valuable combination
ol skills are the Aura ol Thoms and Zeal Since you’ll
be alone most ol the time, the monsters are goiny to
inevitably surround you; and these two skills, when
used in conjunction, will allow you to both weaken
and attack several enemies snnullaneoitsly.
Vengeance is also a good comhat sUII to develop -
save it for fighting boss characters. Late in the game.
Redempbon, which allows you to suck Hie and mana
from the dead, and Satvalion - which grants you alt
resistances - will be your best friends.

Multiplayer The Paladin assumes two roles
here: melee lighter and, due to his auras, party sup-
port Prayer is ahvays good for a post-battle healing
boost Again, Aura of Thoms is great as it ensures
that anyone attacking a party member Is going to

■ Whenever you can, dump your money into
your stash. Although gold doesn't take up any
room, dumping it means that you won't lose
any when you die. Exiting and reloading a
game after dying
gives you all items
intact, except for
whatever gold you
dropped on the floor.

■ Stock up on Town
Portal, and only carry
one or two Identity
scrolls. When you can,
buy a tome of Town
Portal, and make sure
it's stocked with at
least 10 scrolls. Only
carry a few Identity
scrolls for emergency, in-field identifications;
otherwise, just gather the new loot and have it
all identified in one fell swoop back in town.

■ When a boss is too tough, don't be afraid
to gel cheap. Use Town Portal to weave in
and out of combat. Quickly drop a portal, hop
in, heal up and restock, and re-enter the fray.
Most bosses don't heal up.„unless you’ve been
in town for a really long time. You can effec-
tively come and go as you please, and win by
attrition.

hosses like
Andsriel, don't be
afraid to play <
cheap by^Town -
Portalling back
and forth. The
only thing (hat
matters is who
Hives, right?

When big boys like these Urdar
surround you, call on Thorns,
which can kill up to 75% of
your foes.

fake some ilaniage back. Holy rieere is practical
because It weakens any nearby enemies, due to the
(reazing effect. Be sure to have at least one point In
the Resistance auras (Fire, Cold, Lightning,
Cleansing]; even a single paint will significantly cut
down nti the damage inflicted by certain enemies, at
least until you get Salvation. Might is nice early on,
hut ynu should save your points far Concenlratian
Instead - it adds higher damage bonuses, uninter-
rupted attacks, and requires less points.

Character Development: The two main stats
to develop are Strength and Dexterity. Because you'll
he weanng in and out of combat, you need to be able
to both dish It out and lake It hack. Save a powerful
two-handed weapon lor heroes or bosses, and slick
to using a one-handed weapon and shield the rest ol
the time.

■ Can't decide between two really powerful-

Single-player: The Cold and Lightning sklH trees
are the hest ones to focus on. Particularly because
the various Cold armors will help your defense
Uemendously, and Lightning will eventually yield
Energy Shield and Teleport All ol this will make you a
lot harder to hit - making it easier for you to hit the
enemy instead. For bosses, use Sialic Held to knock
down your lea’s health before Dnishing them off.

Both these rare weapons are nice, but it looks like I'll be keeping Viper Scratch owDealhSuiide^

caupiru CAHiaa waiii

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DIABLO II

NICE SET OF STATS Sorceresses now possess
decent fighting skills. Vou should develop more
than ju st your Energy stat

SEPTEMBER 2000

! and Glacial Spike in particular),
f i uViV I mainly Itecause ol tire aiile effect

of freezing your enemy. Damaged
and frozen enemies make for easy
" 0.1 r - targets for the rest of your party. If

' f- you want pure offensive power, opt

~ ' •* fitlow the Rre tree, and focus

back, deliver a round of spells, and

then join in on the melee combat mop'Up.

Character Development: Ironically, the Sorceress is also a capable fighter. The stats you'll
want to focus on are Strength and Energy. This will allow her to wield most vreapons and armor,
which wrTI help when your mana run out and you need to engage the enemy in hand-hr-hand com-
bat Uke the fighter, you'll probably want to stick to the tried-and-true, one-handed-weapon and
shield combination. If you really want to play as a spells-only, old-school mage figure, then devel-
op Vitality instead of Strength to make up for your lardr of powerful weapons or armor.

can deliver
some extra

meant for you.

Mercenaries S|^^H[|[||||||jj|||K^ -r''^

specializing in .

Cold damage -

are always ^

freeze and stow V . ' ’

down vour foes I "

fnr vnii through: take the time ic explore the little

lor you. dungeons and scour ell the remains oil uf enemies: even a

■ We'll revis- common Sand Cat might carry a rare ring,
it the topic of

Hardcore mode on BattleNet, but for now, there's one easy piece of
advice to consider: Be on the defensive. Always try to improve dexterit
when leveling up, as that dictates how often the enemy will be able to

Single-player: The Necromancer Is nol an easy guy tu build up. Throughout Uie firsi acl, you’ll

designed to commend an army of tha undead, and skelelons can be created in large enough num-
bers lu aclunlly bring this army Into being. Golems are your big bruisers, but since you can only
have one of any given golem type at a Ume. you should mainly use them to dispatch enemy
heroes and champions. In a single-player game, you'll do well to fill out your army with skeletons,
skeletal mages, and the eccasional golem to eerve as your personal bodyguard.

Midfiplayer: Far online play, the Necromancer serves two purposes. If your party has a
Paladin, the Necromancer shauld concentrate on combat magic (Tealh, Corpse Erqilosion, Bone
Spear), If there is no Paladin in your group,
however, the Necromancer should use his
curses. They are an ezcellent way to improve
the combat effecthreness of a party.

Character Development: Vour stat free
should be one long sprint b Revive, it's the
best Necromancer skill and once you have II,
you're pretty much unstoppable. When consid-
aring items, keep your eye out lor rings and
amulets that help you cape with elemental damage, as the Necromancer is a bit unequipped lor
that Oh, and a good scythe will compliment any Necromancer's wardrobe - it's powerful, and it

What was perhaps the goofiest hoax in gaming has become a
reality; the Cow Level. You'll need to have finished the game once,
and have three things; Wirt’s Leg from Tristram (Act 1). a Tome of
Town Portal and the Horadric Cube.

First, make sure you're in the Rogue Encampment, then toss
Wirt s Leg and the Tome into the Cube, transmute them, and voila,
a portal to the Cow Level. Have fun mooing down the Cow King.

Always cast Boire Armor before you hit a
mana shrine or anything else that will
restore your magic power. ^ .

goes with your shoes.

early and, later in the game, the Ice Arrow. Both of these will slew or slop enemies, keeping them at a
safe dislanct lor your ranged attacks (and a level 3 ice arrow is a single-shot kill for inosi monsters,
even In Acl 111).

A particularly nasty tactic is to block a doorway by slopping a monsler with an Ice Arrow, then
bombarding Uie trapped horde behind him with savage Immolation Arrows, Passive skills to focus on
are Critical Strika and Penetrate (the better to knock down enemies belote they reach you), as well as
the various dodging slulls.

Mulfiplayer: Here, the Amazon plays a vital support — ,

role. Think olyoursell as artillory, softening up targets lor i *
your front lines to lloish off. Weaken enemies with ’^!*l****^i',^ »

Explosive Arrows end Immolslton Arrows end let your f y-

Paladins and Berbarians do the rest of the work. Amazons '

era also good for covering a retreating party, buying Ume '

for the retreat by Inezing (and possibly killing) pursuing * aw

ters, this lumbering brule ts the best equipped to deal with Uie tribulations ol trie in the wild. The
first thing any self-respecting barbarian should do is raise his Find Potion attribute. Rit most ol
the first act, this is a bit useless, but once you gnt into the latter parts ol the game, you’ll be
thankful for the constant supply of health potions this skill provides. With only 1 or 2 points dedi-
cated to find Potion, a Barbarian can stay In Uie midst of baffle for hours without ever resorting
to a town-portal scroll

Multiplayer: Your war cries are your best friends; they can raise your party's stats to dizzying
0 more hostile battle cries, such as War Gry and
Taunt Taunt is particularly useful lor online games,
especially when one of your party’s magic-users is
being swamped by Thunder... er... Saber Cats.

Character Development: Of Iho other Barbarian
skills. Iron Skin b fantastic - get if as soon as you
an able. By Ibn time you I

I Gheed atrd his •
courtferparts i'

ofierr hold some ’
amazing items, if
you've got the
guts to take a ‘
risk.

I afford H, your
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Is ptahahly Ihe single most allaillia shill lha Barhiilan posseasas: II sen gal yaii In end nul nl
hnllln gnichly, and II dnna a »agnn-laad nl daipago In Ihe dalondlng parly. Is In, letpann and
aiDioi... tahe yaur plahiTha Baibatlai can asa Baylblng. Far haaaaa. Iho •aapaa-shlald aaaihlna-

llonworhs well Fnr eyeryonaelae. go Gladlalnr stylo and uaa held twa-handedweaponi

elaia on yon. By Aal II. yaa ahoald alail damping shill palais iata ynar Ear
Inaalag heavily an ipaglE In lha later ants. Man aatlltllog year abaracler.
that enhance your Attack rating, and especially anything that replenishes

^ ^ ; ■ ttie Terriin paradise of Buenos mfes has been>

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Command a crew of heauily-armored, totally insecticidal troopers throughout a blitoing H,
real-time strategy triai-iy-fire. Launch air-strikes, capture prisoners, and nUhe buy-holes as you^ :
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Swarms Of Giant Arachnids! State-(

In the ancient land of Yamato,

an aging and power-hungry warlord turned to
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His soul ravaged by the demon Raien,
tn^warlord released hordes of undead

warrT®^ and hellspawn to crush all life from
ts^fEis kingdom and the four houses of power
“ „^^whOj.swore fealty to his throne. As bodies
tester from the warlord’s assault
seven sarn.urat stand ready for their
final mission —

revenge.

^ your samurai through ten

h%e environments of fast-paced
^ action role-playing based on

^ Japanese monsters and myths.

,,t

I,,

... p.

li- Get ready for intense multiplayer
mayhem! Up to 35
people can play online and vie for
the mantle of Dark Warlord.

^ Innovative character AI

gives you more than 30 <

commands for you to lead k,

your party throug^h the ' ^

always-changing landscape
ot the single-player game.

Mnilg fEMIBE

CLI@K

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Outstanding The rare game
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experience.

We review only
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SPOTLIGHT REVIEW: SHOGUN: TOTAL WAR

Sun Tzu would be pleased with SHOGUN's artful blend
of strategy, simulation, and action

The Way of the Warrior

THE CASTLE OF PAIN Gorgeous environnients and realistic sound effects create a highly immersive and authentic tableau
Terrain, weather, fortifications, and troop types all play important roles.

T omorrow at sunrise, I, honorable Daimyo of the
Mori clan, march my Samurai army against
Taketia castle at Kai. Even though my shinobi
spies tell me that Takeda is ready to topple, I have
taken extra precautions by dispatching Horse Cavalry
from the nearby highlands of Izu, and Warrior Monks
from our homeland at Mimaska,
Many seasons and countless
sacrifices place me on the
threshold of complete victory. I
do this in the name of Mori
honor, Tomorrow, the Takeda
perish and all 60 provinces will
unite under my banner.
Tomorrow, i become Shogun
of Japan.

Welcome to SHOGUN:
TOTAL WAR, a masterfully
designed strategy game set in
the tumultuous period of

CGW RATEn

I An epic game that
! will please James
Clavell fans,

I Japanese military
historians, and
Risk'iouers ready
I for the next
I challenge.

Multiplayer lacks
I a campaign
element; no turn-
I based multiplayer
! mode.

Japanese history known as the Sengoku Jidai, or the
warring states period of the 16th Century. SHOGUN
not only provides an excellent mix of gaming genres
for the historical wargamer, turn-based strategist, and
3D-action buff, but it's also an extremely stable game.
SHOGUN's 3D combat engine is likened to warring in
the majestic Kurosawa film. Ran. without the melodra-
matic tragedy. Thank goodness - Electronic Arts and
Creative Assembly released SHOGUN just in time to
rescue gamers from a noticeable shortage of quality
strategy-simulation games.

Cutting Down the Enemy Is the Way of
Strategy...

SHOGUN offers four gaming choices: an in-depth
campaign mode; a historical battle mode for recreat-
ing one of five historical battles in realtime; custom
battle mode for creating your own army unit disposi-
tions in realtime; and a multiplayer tactical-battle mode
via LAN or Internet. There's also a detailed tutorial to

flcquirements: Pofillufr 200MH; MMX. 32MB RAM. 4x CD-ROM. SCDMB haul drivo space.

Recommended Requiremente: Pentiiim 300MHz or AMD K6, B4MD RAM. 8x CD ROM, 1.5GB hard drive space.

3D Support: 4MB PC or AGP video card w/DirvclX 7. Multiplayer Support: 2-8 players v/illi 33,6 kbps or faster connection.

Publisher: Electronic Arts • Developer: Creative Assembly • $29 > www.ea.com
ESRB Haling: Teen; animated violence.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

If the developers were really

help you better understand the tactical phase of SHOGUN's real-time
3D combat. Your goal in the campaign game is simple: Unite all of
Japan under your rule through combat and subterfuge and become
Shogun, or supreme military dictator. SHOGUN is about ambition
and war.

In a campaign, you choose from one of seven clans to rule as the
Daimyo (warlord). Each clan possesses its own strengths and weak-
nesses, which determine your strategy. The Mori clan, for instance,
builds warrior monks at lower cost. However, unwieldy terrain leads
to a lack of farmland, limiting the amount of income the Mori can pro-
duce. Conversely, the Hojo start off with the highest income and can
therefore construct castles at a lower cost. Choosing clans like the
Uesugi is more challenging because their provinces are stretched

trying to impress the notion of damnation
on the player, mission accomplished.

— Brett Todd, reviewing VAUIPIRE; THE
MASQUERADE— REDEMPnON.

Suddenly, This Summer

By Tom Price

S ummer is the time for dry spells, be they weather-related or on the
gaming front. Game publishers usually save their big new releases for
the lucrative holiday buying season of late fall. But this year, some-
thing strange is happening. A whole slew of highly anticipated games are
hitting shelves early, and by the look of this month's reviews, they're a
field of winners. SHOGUN, MDE 2, GROUND CONTROL, DIABLO-freakin-2! Not
to mention some unexpected gems like EVOLVA and COMBAT MISSION. And
reviewing DEUS Ex, DARE REIGN n, and WARLORDS; BATTLECRY for next
month's issue will keep us indoors until all this annoyingly nice weather is
past. At least we're no longer in danger of losing our pasty complexions we
worked on all winter.

Hopefully, publishers will make this mid-year renaissance an annual
occunence. Too many good games get crushed under the holiday rush, and
gamers are tired of making Q1 games last until Q4 (although THE SIMS sure
hasn't run out of steam yet). Now, you'll be playing DIABLO n right up until
Christmas Eve (what? You were going to do that anyway?). Drop me a line
at tom_price@ziffdavis.com and let me know which summer release you're
most looking forward to. I'll be out by the pool, enjoying a mai tai, playing
ARCANUM on a laptop.

thin. Regardless of clan, strategy depends on developing and manag-
ing their provincial resources in order to build armies for conquest.

The strategy aspect of SHOGUN is as easy to grasp as that of the
classic Milton Bradley boardgame Shogun (now called Samurai
Swords), but with greater depth. SHOGUN tests your resource man-
agement, diplomatic, political, and advanced planning skills, but it
also tests your skills as a battlefield tactician. Similar to the
boardgame, you move units around the map to gather intelligence,
assassinate rival generals and emissaries, negotiate treaties, and
attack enemy provinces.

To be successful, you must first generate income from your lands in
the form of SHOGUN's main resource, koku (the amount of rice nec-
essary to feed one man for a year). In addition to feeding your troops,

SEPTEMBER REVIEWS

GAME

Army Men: World War

Army Men: Air Tactics

Combat Mission

A * A A *

Diablo 2

A A A A A

AAAA* 1

EverQuest: Kunark expansion

A A A A J

Evolva

★★★★★

■

Flying Heroes

★ ★★★★

Ground Control

Kiingon Academy

'k-A-A-k-k

Lemmings Revolution

AAA-AA

MDK2

A A A A V

Operational Art of War: COW Edition

A A A A A

PGA Championship Golf 2000

A A A A A

Shogun: Total War

A A A A V

SimCity 3000 Unlimited

AAAAA

Test Drive: Le Mans

kk-AAk

Vampire: The Masquerade

kkkkk

REVIEVy

SHOCSUIM; TOTAL. WAR

NONE SHALL PASS Crossing a bridge can wreck a force's morale.
Archers make a great defense as they rain arrows at those attempting to
cross.

CONTRACTOR NEEDED: INQDIRE WITHIN SHOGUN'S tech tree
is easy to understand, but make sure you know what troops you need
before embarking on a lengthy construction campaign.

koku is needed for constructing buildings and training new units.

You can increase koku production by improving farmlands, building
ports, or raising taxes; but if you raise faxes too high, you run the risk
of rebellion.

Each province has the ability to produce koku, and in turn, to
develop the necessary structures to build your armies. Constructing a
castle allows for more upgrades and building options, which in turn
creates more options for training units, Later in the game, special
events will occur such as the arrival of Dutch or English Traders, who
give you the opportunity to build more advanced structures like an
arms factory for muskets. SHOGUN also includes a slew of unit
types, from basic Samurai Archers and Yari Samurai (spearmen) to
more advanced Musketeers, Ninjas, and Geisha assassins. Units can
be enhanced with improved weapons, armor, and morale. The game’s
straightfonivard technology tree makes the research and building
model manageable.

The Way of the Warrior Is Death. . .

Shogun provides three options when attacking or defending a
province: Command your troops personally, let the computer decide
the outcome, or retreat into a nearby province. Choosing to com-
mand your troops personally switches you to the blood and guts of
SHOGUN - 3D real-time tactical combat, where you can control up
to 2500 samurai. Before combat starts, however, you get to assess
weather and determine a course of action: Fight now, or wait for
more advantageous weather conditions under a clear sky, or during
rain, snow, or fog. Depending on the troop dispositions, it can be
advantageous to fight in the rain, if, for instance, they possess heavy
cavalry - rain wears cavalry down. Once battle begins, you control
units through a robust interface, with a combination of keyboard com-
mands, mouse clicks, and/or desktop icons. Combat takes place on a
variety of wonderfully rendered 3D terrain maps, and the atmosphere
is heightened with good audio effects and ambient music.

Shogun's combat model is as authentic as they come, and dur-
ing the battle, factors like troop types, morale, formations, terrain,
weather effects, and fatigue all come into play. Creative Assembly did
its homework and applied Sun Tzu's Art of War principles to each
unit’s Al. So, for example, brute force is usually not enough to win.

Units haphazardly thrown at the enemy will surely be routed before a
battle's end.

Eliminate all rival clans, Ronin, and rebels, and you will become
Shogun. As Shogun, you are presented with an interesting cinematic
describing the fruits of your efforts, both past and present. What's
next? Play again or move on to multiplayer, via LAN or EA's Internet
server. There's nothing more adrenaline-pumping than eight armies
slugging It out in some Japanese valley. However, I did have a beef
with Shogun's multiplayer game. It not only lacks the ability to play
in turn-based mode, it's also missing a save-film feature for reviewing
battles already played. What were they thinking?

Be Extremely Mysterious, Even to the Point of
Soundlessness...

As good as SHOGUN is, it’s not perfect. The simplistic interface
suddenly becomes tedious when controlling several provinces and
hundreds of units. A menu option similar to that in BRAVEHEART
(which allowed viewing of general production cycles at any given
time, both territorially and locally), would have been more efficient
than clicking through two dozen provinces in order to calculate struc-
tures and unit dispositions.

1 was also disappointed with the diplomacy model. Treaties with
neighboring clans are broken without justification. And even though
you can form alliances with neighboring clans, you cannot join forces
to defeat a common enemy. Alliances rarely last long, serving only to
stall the enemy while preparing offensives.

I was generally pleased with unit balance, except in the case of the
Geisha. Anyone using them usually has the upper hand in assassinat-
ing enemy generals, shinobi, and emissaries. I also found Ronin and
rebel-controlled provinces to be more powerful than any of the seven

BORDER RAMA By the time you are ready to expand, you should know
the advantages and disadvantages of all seven clans and of the 60
provinces you need to conquer. But make sure to bolster your security in
the form of castles, garrison, and shinobi counterspies before undertaking
an offensive.

ABACDS WANTED After each battle, a summary screen tallies victory
or defeat, while assessing individual unit performance in honor gained,
heads taken, men lost, and remaining troops.

tfTii

SEPriMBER BOBO

cgw. gamespDt.com

CSMPOTEB SAHIN6 NDRLB

DZOOO Digital Fusion. Inc. All rights reserved. Published and distributed by WizardWorks. an Infogrames Inc. company. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

8 You are the last line of defense against an -..vv

overwhelming enemy assault. Blast away at land,

I sea and air forces as they rush you from every
: direction. Clear the beach, defend your post and
; pray that the supply plane comes in time!

IT AIIN’T XO BEACH PARTY!

, • Aim in on landing troops, helicopters, tanks, grenades,
; jet fighters, bombers and more!

• In your face hardcore photo-realistic 3D action!

rijj, , • Wave after wave of intense enemy assaults!

AVAIMBLE XOM !

REVIEW

SHOBUIM:

TOTAL WAR

clans. Destroying them requires more resources and concentrated
effort than it should. The throne room is of limited utility in the game.
It’s the only place where you can receive emissaries to form alliances,
but beyond that, it's a waste of time. Your advisor spouts obscure
wisdom from Sun Tzu that rarely pertains to current events. It would
have been beneficial if an abacus was added to show each of your
province's koku revenues, or a map detailing army victories, or even
court entertainment in the form of the geisha playing Japanese
sonnets (she just sits there).

The tactical game, though well made, has some minor shortcom-
ings as well. During the fray, it’s difficult to discern which units are
which, especially during the heat of a massive melee. Color-coded
highlighting - as in MYTH - would have been a welcome addition.

Despite these flaws, SHOGUN possesses an impressive amount of
depth and replay value in both strategy and tactical gameplay, making
it the leading candidate for Strategy Game of the Year. Bottom line;
SHOGUN is well worth the price, so strap on your Do, powder your
Katana, and join the armies of the Sengoku Jidai.

Shogun Strategies

Achieving Battlefield Mastery

Shogun adheres to the classic book on strategy and tactics
by Sun Tzu, Art of War. “One should appraise a war first of all
in terms of five fundamental factors,” writes Sun Tzu. “The first
of the fundamental factors is politics; the second, weather; the
third, terrain: the fourth, the commander; and the fifth, doctrine."
In SHOGUN, all of these factors apply.

Politics: Play the Hojo clan if you're having difficulty. The
Hojo are the easiest to manage because of higher koku yields
and defensible borders. Make alliances with surrounding Clans
so you can focus your attacks on one enemy at a time. Clans
like the Takeda, Oda, and Imagawa are not to be trusted since
they tend to break alliances quickly, and this is especially true if
one of your provinces invites attack. Target wealthy provinces,
and likewise, make sure you shore up defenses on your own
valuable provinces. If you fall short of koku, raise taxes for only
one turn. Use shinobi to encourage rebellion in enemy
provinces with low loyalty ratings. It'll keep the enemy from
mustering offensives against you.

Weather: Know what effect weather has on all troop types.
Rain renders Arquebusiers useless once their powder gets wet
(the more advanced muskets can still fire), Archers also suffer
effects in rain, since bowstrings dampen; and with wind,
because accuracy is reduced. Snow will reduce the mobility of
all units, especially cavalry, which easily tire.

Terrain: Review the battle map before starting the battle and
look for key strategic points like bridges, forests, and hills.
Higher ground increases archers' accuracy and range, it is also
better to attack downhill, since units attacking uphill tire quickly.
Use heavily armored troops and cavalry to draw out the enemy
before committing a full-scale assault.

Commander: Morale is very important in SHOGUN; build it
in your army by utilizing the same units and commanders.

Higher morale makes units more effective in combat, Always
use the generals (Taisho) with the highest honor in battle. Their
honor bonus is passed to the troops they lead. Likewise, con-

AVALANCHE! By using terrain and weather affects, red army holds the
upper hand ~ literally. Red archers are able to rain arrows more accurately
and effectively, whereas, because of snow, green army’s troops are heavily
fatigued before combat begins, making them highly susceptible to rout.

THOSE WHO HAVE EYES BUT CANNOT SEE The battle starts out in
fog. The red army did not scout for the enemy, sn it marches haphazardly into
a valley, then proceeds to attack a green army, perfectly formed and waiting
on the slopes. Within minutes, much of the red army scatters because of
fatigue, loss of men, and lowered morale.

centrate your attacks on the enemy Taisho. If he falls, then the
enemy will rout faster. In turn, always protect your generals with
an escort of shinobi or ninja for security against any assassina-
tion attempts.

Doctrine: Die-hard strategists may be tempted to skip the
tactical game altogether and to allow the computer to decide
the fate of their armies. Even though the A1 is balanced, I
strongly recommend you play the tactical game. Commanding
your army in battle almost always improves your chances.
Remember to destroy as much of the retreating enemy as pos-
sible, or they will return to fight you another day. Use cavalry
units to run down routing troops, or try maneuvering a unit
behind them, to cut off retreat.

Use formations during battle. Loose formations are great
for decreasing the effects of missile attacks, whereas close for-
mations will hold key defensive points more effectively. Wedge
formations are effective in breaking enemy defenses and lines.
Use cavalry to attack archers. And Warrior monks are more
effective if “engaged at will."

SEPTCHBER 2000 •

CDMPDTER 6IIMIN6 WGRIB

-'Turret gunner, you locked
1 on to 'that straggler?'

‘He's dead
meat."

‘Cover me, I gotta
pay the pizza guy.'

‘Squadron, look out for
stealth fighters."

THIS IS ND SOLD MISSION

Welcome to the universe of massive multiplayer space.combat. Join your squadron online. Confront other civilizations. Play free on worldwide
servers. Or fly in hundred-ship dogfights on Zone.com. Just keep in mind-those that fly alone, die alone, www.microsoftcom/games/allegiance

Conquer the galaxy with a uttle help from your friends.

Microsoft

f 2000 MIciDscft Corporntcon. All hghls i

iiniKs of Mlcnnoll Corpdtiillon I

ncVofolf:

grRe citadel of ^afon Ras been under

constant siege Jor tRe past 8 montRs
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AUMx'ii,.

REVIEW

ACTION

H Bioware delivers humor and

H comic bookology in their

H surprising sequel

1 Many Doses

1 of KAPOW!

so, THIS IS WHAT A VISIT FROM
6ALACTUS FEELS LIKE The boss design is

1 ),■ top-notch throughout; each boss is huge and

requires a bit of puzzle-solving to beat.

amers who lament over the lack of comic-book inspired
games - here's one staring you in the face. Okay, so no one
has an “S" slapped on his chest, and there's nary a Marvel or
DC logo anywhere on the box. But everything about BioWare's MDK
2 - its load-screens, cutscenes, level design, and gameplay -

appears to have leapt right off a
four-color panel and onto your 32-
bit color screen. MDK 2 brings you
the best of what Jack Kirby and
Stan Lee had to offer in the 60s: it’s
a mad vision of heroes that fly, ram-
page, and invent with reckless aban-
don, pitted against over-the-top villains who spout world-conquest
diatribes. It features pure action that screams “ROW! BANG!
ZOOMI"

Crisis on Infinite Canadas

Plotwise, you couldn't get much lighter than
MDK 2. Max, Doc Hawkins, and Kurt are
enjoying some brews after the end of the origi-
nal MDK when yet another alien minecrawler
attacks Edmonton, Canada. Kurt is dispatched
quickly, and soon you’ll find yourself romping
across the planet, Hawkins' ship (the “Jim
Dandy"), and a variety of alien craft. Gameplay
is similar to the previous game in that you'll be
zipping down a linear series of interconnected
locations, and you'll have to either thump or
jump your way past obstacles.

The major departure from the previous game
is that you’re playing all three characters, not
just Kurt. Max stops being an airstrike weapon

THE NAME’S SHWANG. SHWING SHVUANG The cutscenes
featuring Dec Hawkins are the best, as they combine a perfect voice with
some realty silly lines.

Well, Shwang • If that Is you* real name • just you
aliens wait imtil I get my janitor back!

LIGHTNING SPIDER AWAY! It's big, it’s flashing, it's pretty. I really
have no idea what's going on, but I'm too bedazzled to care...

f!'

-■rf)

MDK 2

I reviewed by Thierry Ijguyen

CGW RATED

It’s a comic hook

rendered as a
game: colorful,
ouer-the-top,
action-packed,
and fun.

Platform-game
holdovers, like
twitchy controls
and jumping

puzzles, provide

the wrong sort of Requirements: Pentium 20 OMH 7 . IGMB ram. 250MB hani drive space. 3D card. DittctX-canipalible sound canl. RpnmpiWlld'JBe^^fBhts: l^nBUin-ll
challenges. SIHIMHz 64MB ram. 30 Support: OpenOL Multiplayer Support None

Publisher Interplay * Developer: BioWare • $40 • www.interplay.com/mdk2 • ESRB Rating: Teen; animated blood and violence.

SEPTEMBER 2DQ0 •

EOMPUTEB GAMING WORLD

REVIEW

and gets his own levels, while Doc Hawkins branches out from briefing-giving
to adventure-taking. Out of the game's ten levels, each character is featured
in three, with the final level giving you the choice of which character to be. It's
all one sequential story, and the game manages to actually make sense of
your switching characters so much.

The character switching brings out three unique ptaystyles. Just as in the
original game, playing Kurt involves jumping, shooting, and sniping. Max is
more about pure action, as he pumps out bullets from guns in each of his
four hands; the gunfire is only interrupted by the occasional jumping puzzle.
Finally, Doc Hawkins plays like an action-oriented LucasArts game; you'll
have to pick up inventory items and combine them in bizarre ways to solve
puzzles, dispatch enemies, or find ways of jumping around. These puzzles
range from fixing a leaky pipe to guiding a goldfish through some funnels in
order to flip a switch.

Whatever Happened to the MDK of Tomorrow?

Since MDK was designed by Shiny, there’s the question of how BioWare
addressed the general humor and attitude of the original. Rather than try to
imitate Shiny's style, they made their own distinct mark in the spirit of Shiny's
method. Instead of focusing on the odd/twisted or the extremely weird items,
BioWare focused on goofy dialogue that uses a mix of pop culture, scatologi-
cal humor, and well-cast voice actors. The result is that MDK 2 is as funny as
the original, but in a different way.

While you're busy laughing at Doc Hawkins’ one-liners or groaning at the
farting aliens, you’ll also notice the absolute beauty of the game. This is one
to show off that brand new VooDoo 9500/GeeForce 47 you bought.
Whatever card you’ve got, this game will paint luscious vistas, dazzling lights,
insanely detailed enemies, and eye-wrenching visual effects. It's also a very
tightly-programmed engine - just about any decent machine can run the
game comfortably at 1024x768 resolution, and power-gamers will get good
frame-rates even at 1 600x1 200 resolution. The exceptions to this are levels
seven and eight; you'll probably want to turn the detail down a bit on these
levels, unless you like grinding along like a slime-less slug.

The Dark Platform Saga

While the game is full of big, gorgeous fun and zany laughs, it’s still got
some problems. This is a platform game at heart; hence, it comes with some
of the same problems inherent in most platform games.

The control scheme is still a bit twitchy. Even though the default scheme is
designed with the first-person-shooter fan in mind (keys for movement and
mouse for aiming), jumps and turns still tend to be out of whack. Sometimes
your character will either turn way too quickly or way too slowly, or you'll find
yourself dying because you didn’t quite hit the jump button hard enough. Doc
Hawkins, in particular, suffers from an awkward interface, mostly in the
“arming" and using of certain items.

The jumping puzzles, for the most part, are pretty fair, although there are
some that are insanely difficult. Even players who were, like myself, weaned
on MARIO, PITFALL, and SONIC will find themselves slamming their desks as
a result of some jumping puzzles in level eight, specifically.

One of the main differences between the PC version and the DreamCast

version is the addition of a Save-Anywhere feature. I'm a huge proponent of
Save-Anywhere, but it does mess with puzzle design, effectively rendering
null some of MDK 2’s more challenging situations. This is most evident on
Doc Hawkins' levels, where some of his puzzles are solvable by trial-and-
reload, rather than by thinking them through.

All in all, despite some ire-raising puzzles and twitchy controls, this is a
flat-out fun game. Approach this as it is; a well-crafted action game that
emphasizes shooting, sniping, jumping, and puzzling. Don't go in looking for
the future of action gaming. Look at it the same way you would a classic
comic; big, colorful, dumb (in a good way) fun mixed with goofy humor,
pulse-pounding action, and an appreciation for guys in costumes thwarting
aliens in bigger costumes.

COMPUTER GRMINO WORig

The first 3D wargame scores a major victory

Wargaming’S New Look

F or years, wargamers had been pleading for games that took
advantage of advances in computer technology to create origi-
nal, engaging simulations. Instead, they got games which either
looked like more realistic versions of games they had played in paper
form, or which used the computer as a calculation machine for
incredibly complex combat systems - but which were still based on
mechanics from 20 or 30 years ago. Recycled ideas have been the
hallmark of wargaming.

COMBAT MISSION takes these
tired ideas and tosses them out. In
their place, it asks the question:
How can a computer wargame
use attractive graphics in the ser-
vice of accurate simulation, and
make the combination fun? The
answer is a fully 3D, turn-based
masterpiece in which players plot
their moves simultaneously, and

then watch their orders unfold in 60-second slices of realtime. It’s the
game everyone imagined 20 years ago as the ultimate “computer
wargame." Guess what? It's finally here.

Western Front Shootout

While the first thing that might come to mind upon seeing

COMBAT MISSION is a WWI! version of SID

COMBAT

MISSION

MEIER'S GETTYSBURG, the similarities are limited to 3D graphics
and a foundation in history. COMBAT MISSION is actually more akin
to familiar hex-based games such as RISING SUN or WEST FRONT.
The biggest difference is the 3D presentation, and wargame veterans
will find that at the tactical level, this changes everything.

The subtitle of COMBAT MISSION is “Beyond Overlord," and the
scenarios all deal with battles fought on the Western Front on or after
June 6, 1 944. While most combat units are squads, individual vehi-
cles and leaders are depicted, as well as smaller units such as
special weapons teams. Players can command American, German,
French, British, and even Polish forces in battles such as Falaise
Pocket and Operation Market-Garden. The number of unit types
depicted is staggering, and this allows for great freedom in scenario
design when using the editor. “Operations" consist of multi-scenario
battles over a large map, and introduce supply considerations. There
is even a “Quick Battle” function that generates random scenarios
based on some general user-specified parameters. The replayability
of COMBAT MISSION is almost endless.

What's That Burning Smell?

One of the most striking aspects of COMBAT MISSION is the
degree to which it demonstrates the inadequacy of traditional two-
dimensional, hex-based representations of combat. After many years
of playing hex-based games, it’s easy to internalize a set of conven-
tions {such as line-of-sight rules) and mistake them for the real thing;
COMBAT MISSION takes these illusions and obliterates them in
spectacular fashion. The simple act of turning a 2D environment
into a 3D one changes the way players look at the battlefield.
Important terrain features have to be identified from a “real
world" perspective. Keeping troops in supporting positions, cre-
ating crossfire zones, and maintaining proper command dis-
tance all become far more difficult when you take away the
crutch of a flat map and a hex grid. The command experience in
COMBAT MISSION is far more realistic as a result,

Gameplay consists of each player plotting his orders during
the Orders Phase, and then watching them simultaneously
unfold during the Action Phase. Free camera control allows

Requirements; Pentium IBBMHz (Pentium 20Q!i1Hi it no 3D can!), 32MB RAM. 1G0MB hanl drive space. Recammended flequirements: Penbum-ll 3D0MHZ. B4MB
RAM, 16MB 3Q graphics caFil. 3D Support; Direct 3D. Glide. Multiplayer Support: PBEM/hotseat (2 players). Internet with upcoming vl.1 patch: one CD per player.

Publisher: Battlefrant • Developer: Big Time Software • S45 • www.battlelranLcom « ESRB Rating: Not rated.

REVIEW

players to view this action from whichever angle they choose, or to
lock the view on important units,

Despite its focus on command and a realistic view of the battle-
field, COMBAT MISSION is not an abstracted “command-level" model
of warfare where you give your units general orders, and then sit back
to watch the results. Underneath the 3D graphics is a wargame that
is as detailed and open to micromanagement as any traditional hex
game. Every unit must be given exact orders regarding where, when,
and how fast to move, at whom to shoot, and how to reach its desti-
nation. The interface allows for minute control of your units through
sophisticated waypoint schemes and different movement modes. The
units themselves have some intelligence, and will take measures to
defend themselves if unexpected circumstances arise, but the game
very much hinges on how well each player plans their turn, down to
the last detail.

The simultaneous-move system and the unique environment make
COMBAT MISSION a very challenging game. Tactics have to be coor-
dinated, and even though each turn only lasts a minute, that minute is
a long, long time during combat. Many things can happen, and a few
mortar rounds or the unexpected arrival of an enemy tank changes
the entire battlefield situation instantly. The best tactics are those
that anticipate problems, which means players have to visualize how
their orders will unfold during the turn, and not simply their position at
the end. When playing ail but the smallest of scenarios, this can be
very challenging.

Players who meet this challenge, however, will be rewarded with a
wargame experience unlike any other. Turns can be viewed repeatedly
and from many different angles, and it is during this replay phase that
COMBAT MISSION comes to life, Watching your infantry get
ambushed is a heart-stopping experience, and playing the game can
be like watching a good war movie. The tension is higher than in any
wargame to date - even the CLOSE COMBAT series. It's a different
kind of tension, to be sure, but it’s no less nerve-wracking. The excel-
lent sound effects enhance this feeling immeasurably,

COMBAT MISSION has all the features (rally, panic, smoke, river
crossings, artillery) that wargamers would expect in a game like this,
and adds a few new ones. Units can be spotted by sound alone,
making tanks particularly hard to conceal when moving. Command
lag means that units farther from a formation commander suffer some
delay in executing their orders. Added together, all these features
make for one of the most detailed simulations available.

COMBAT MISSION is not perfect, but it's awfully close. The
biggest problem is the tack of an overview screen to help players
locate units. The designers say this was a conscious omission to
reduce the player's omnipotence, but it can be a little frustrating in
some of the larger scenarios. Some animations, like the flames com-
ing from burning vehicles, are a bit sub-standard when viewed up
close. There is also no TCP/IP play available yet, although Battlefront
promises a free upgrade to remedy this later in the summer. These
points are dwarfed by all of the things that COMBAT MISSION does
brilliantly. Unlike some other wargames from small developers,
COMBAT MISSION includes a sturdy, 170-page manual that explains
the game in detail - it even has an index.

The economics of game distribution have hit wargames particularly
hard, and COMBAT MISSION is no exception. The game is not and
will not be available in retail stores, and can only be purchased
directly from Battlefront via their Web site. But this shouldn't deter
anyone from buying if. The trend toward derivative game design
means that revolutionary games come along rarely. COMBAT
MISSION is a revolution on CD. Join it. f<d’.7

Fighting the Faux Foe

W argame artificial intelligence (or the lack of it) has

been a prickly problem over the years. The fact that an
experienced wargamer can generally crush most game
Al means that for a true challenge, wargame fans need live oppo-
nents. This is a problem when most wargames are turn-based
and don't lend themselves to Internet play, and many people don't
like the drawn-out nature of play by email games. The difficulty
introduced by COMBAT MISSION'S 3D perspective might obscure
the fact that the Al is pretty darn good. As usual, the computer is

better on the defensive than when attacking, but in general, it
puts up quite a fight Concealed units choose targets wisely,
instead of just taking potshnts at the first half-track to blunder
past them. Units are smart about moving; A tank, when brought
under heavy fire near some trees, backed up behind them instead
of turning around and exposing its rear. While the best competi-
tion will still come from head-to-head games against good
opponents, COMBAT MISSION has a few tricks to show off in
single-player mode. Don't underestimate your enemy!

CDMPUItR 6IIMIN6 WOBLB

103

ROCKET RANGER Some units, like this Rocket Terradyne, are excellent at
taking dovm both air and ground units. Their weakness: infantry.

MORE POWER The more powerful a unit is, the less of them there will be in a
squad. From left: Main Battle Terradyne, Heavy Terradyne, Artillery Terradyne.

• /T>..

/ //

'■ 1 . .■

f - ' ' ...

f'i.' ' ’ '44, ' . v;

Sierra’s new tactical RTS makes the grade

Familiar Territory, New Ground

G round control is the latest in a new wave of real-time

strategy games that eschew the traditional resource harvest-
ing and tech-tree climbing model in favor of pure, unrelenting,
tactical combat. Think MYTH, but with healthy doses of COMMAND &

CONQUER, TOTAL ANNIHILATION,

and HOMEWORLD, In raw gameplay
terms, GROUND CONTROL is spot
on, delivering one of the most viscer-
al “you are there" depictions of com-
bat we’ve seen in this game-style. As
a complete package, it does have
some problems, the most obvious of
which is a cliched storyline wrapped
around cliched missions in which the rigid scenario-scripting fails to
provide much challenge or replayability in single-player mode.

Plot-o-matic

It's 2419 , and super-powerful corporations rule the post-apocalyp-
tic earth. (Sigh.) War has been banned on terra firma, so the corpora-
tions pit their security forces against each other for control of mysteri-
ous alien technology found on a desolate colony world. (Yawn.) You

are a loose-cannon field commander with

authority issues {Z77272722) who must lead
your squads of infantry, armor, support vehi-
cles, and aircraft through the standard escort-
defenseless-units and take-out-the-radar-type
missions. For the first half of the game, you
play as Major Sarah Parker of the Crayven
Corporation's security forces, and for the sec-
ond half you play as Jarred Stone, a Deacon in
the Brotherhood of Nod... er, I mean the Order
of The New Dawn, in a hackneyed story that's
been done so many times before that anything
less than parody is unacceptable at this point.

CGW RATED

Units for the respective factions differ fundamentally, but are still
well balanced. The Crayven vehicles (or terradynes) are all tracked or
wheeled, while the Order's units all hover (that's why they're called
hoverdynes, duh). As a result, the Order has the advantage of speed,
while Crayven can accommodate heavier armor. Firepower is pretty
evenly matched, even though Crayven forces use mostly projectile-
based guns while the Order favors energy-based weapons.

Categories of units break down the same, no matter which side
they're on. Each side has two infantry-squad types to choose from
and four armored vehicle types (scout, light, medium, and heavy).
Crayven Corp. has three support-squad types (artillery, anti-air, etc.)
to the Order's four, but they make up for it with four aircraft types to
the Order’s three. Then, of course, you have your command APC
that houses your commander and cannot be destroyed - otherwise,
it’s mission over. APC’s have very little firepower, but they’re tough
to kill and can heal your other units, With the exception of the APC,
all squads can be configured to hold different types of secondary
weapons like mortars and depleted uranium rounds, as well as
supplementary equipment like deployable sentry guns and health
powerups.

A squad’s behavior pattern can be configured as well. Setting a
squad to be offensive, defensive, recon, or balanced will affect attrib-
utes such as firepower, armor, or speed. All of this can be done in the
Configure Squads subscreen before each mission. This adds an
interesting element to the game and gives it some much needed
depth, since proper squad configuration is crucial to the success of
certain missions.

Since there's no base-building or resource han/esting (that is, it
happens behind the scenes and out of your control), you can't just
crank out new units at will. You only have what you cram into your
dropships at the beginning of each mission. And since units gain
experience with each mission they finish, protecting them becomes
priority one. Losing a veteran squad caused me to restart a mission
more than once, not just for the sake of finishing said mission, but for

Requir-ements: Pentium-ll 233. 32M8 RAM, 250MB hani driva sparse. Raconimended Requirements: P-ll 333. 64MS RAM, 450 MB Itatil (btve space.
30 Support: Glide or 030. IVtultiplavor Support: UN/lfilemel thnugli WON.

Publisher Sierra Studios < Developer; Massive Entertainment • $50 • www.sierrastudios.coni/oames/groundcontrol/
ESRB Rating: Teen; animated blood and violence.

REVIEW

do. Along with the command interface, it's one of the best design
points of the game.

The Game Remains the Same

Aside from the corny backstory, there's only one major flaw, but it’s
very major. The missions consist almost entirely of scripted events,
and therefore lack any real enemy Al. Enemy emplacements will be in
the exact same place every time, and enemy units will always show
up at the same place at the same lime. So once you've played a
mission through, you can go back with artillery or any other unit and
simply suppress each spot where an enemy
showed up before. This probably explains
why there's no skirmish mode in GROUND
CONTROL, a style of game that relies heavi-
ly on clever Al. Fortunately, multiplayer mode
is executed excellently, with teamplay imple-
mented and multiple modes like deathmatch
and capture the flag to choose from.

Ultimately, GROUND CONTROL is a good
game that could have been much better.
First-time developers Massive Entertainment
made some rookie mistakes, but they also
created a killer engine and an interface
that's simple and fluid. They should be com-
mended for that. And despite the flaws of
the single-player experience, the multiplayer
mode and custom game mode will allow the
online community to breathe life into the life-
less areas of the game.

all the subsequent ones that would be impacted. Of course, if there
were an in-mission save like there should be, I wouldn't have had that
problem. Unfortunately, at the dropship configuration screen, where
information about squad veterancy would be most useful, it's
nowhere to be found. Only in the post-mission statistics screen can
you view a squad's accomplishments and level of experience.

Control That Ground

Controlling your squads is surprisingly simple, thanks to a high-
ly intuitive interface. Icons representing each of your squads are
grouped at the bottom of
the screen, and contain
health and activities infor-
mation. Clicking on an
icon selects that unit, and
double-clicking centers
that unit on the screen.

Standard RTS controls
are, of course, in place -
like box-dragging and
Ctrl-grouping - and you
can set your units to
guard each other. I wish
players were given the
option of setting closer
guards, because escorts
will always follow the
escortees at quite a dis-
tance. Formations are
also very simple to exe-
cute, but there need to
be more than just three.

Mostly I just switched
between column forma-
tion while moving and
line while attacking.

Because friendly fire is
something you have to
watch out for, using the
right formation in a fire-
fight is key.

GROUND CONTROL
does a great job captur-
ing the greasy, bloody,
smoky reality of combat,
thanks in part to its spec-
tacular 3D engine. The
3D terrain modeling is not
just fantastically realistic
and pretty {second only
to MOTOCROSS
Madness 2 , in my opin-
ion); it's also integral to
the game. You must use
the terrain to your tactical
advantage by taking and
holding the high ground,
or using shadows and
high grass to disguise your units. You can even tip the scales of
war by attacking out of the sun. Sure, lots of strategy and/or war
games have given you attack bonuses for the same things, but
thanks to the go-anywhere camera, you can see these tactics from
an almost first-person level. The close zooming camera lets you
enjoy the nicely-detailed vehicle and building models up close and
personal. In fact, the free-floating camera is surprisingly easy to
use, considering how much ground it covers and how much it can

cjw.samespDl.com

COMPUTES 6AMINS WORLD

REVIEW Rai.E-RL.A.YIISIC

Bad design drains the life out of VAMPIRE

I Vant To Suck

CHRISTOF'S CREVU The higher class ol Viennese vampire wears a tot
of armor anti comes packing enough serious hardware to get medieval on
anyone's ass. And I thought Frank Langelia was scary enough in his cape
and tuxedo.

CGW RATED

Publisher: Activision • Oeveloper: Nihilistic Software • $38 • www.activision.com • ESRB Rating: Mature; animated blood and
violence.

clans, kills a lot of bad guys, and winds up in the 20th Century, seek-
ing redemption for his tortured soul.

Sound exciting? It isn’t. While there is always an urgent task await-
ing your attention, the characters handling your marching orders
would rather prattle on endlessly than let you go to it. Parts of the
game lurch from one agonizingly long filibuster to another with only
moments of gameplay to break the boredom. If the developers were
trying to impress the notion of Christof's damnation upon the player,
well, mission accomplished.

These dialogues are also filled with the most unintentionally funny
lines I’ve heard since Mystery Science Theater 3000 went off the air,
with every plot point in the game accompanied by a laugh-out-loud
comment. Try keeping a straight face when the Crusader himself mut-
ters gems like “I like not this talk of the skin of virgins." Or when you
hear howlers such as “Does he not know that I can crack his sealed
crypt at any time with the Anointed Skull of the Lamia?!" A Charlton

Dne of the best
looking role-
playing games
currently on thi
market...

...which doesn t
matter because
those pretty
pictures are
saddled with a
boring story,
insipid dialogue,
no save-game
feature, and infu-
riating repetition.

“Is this all that remains of noble Christof?”

Redemption opens in 1 2th Century Prague, the plot focusing on
a crusader who belongs to the Order of the Swordbrethren: Christof
Romuald. After developing a forbidden love for the nun who nursed
him back to health following an injury, Christof gets wrapped up in
evil dealings and is turned into a vampire in short order. He then
takes part in politi-
cal infighting
between vampire

Requirements: Pentlum-ll 233MHz. 64MB RAM. 720MG hard drive space. Dlrecl3D. Rct:ommeiideil Requirements: Perilliirr-ll 400MKZ. 128MB RAM, 94SMB
I hard dr ive snaEI 30 Support: Dired3D Multiplayer Support: LAN or W0N.net an Hie Internet (2-4 players), one CD per player.

I once had a college roemmate who was a fanatical player of
White Wolf’s original pen and paper Vampire role-playing game.

Brad and his friends were so into the gaming world, in fact, that
they used to play it out on the streets, painting their faces white and
faux-stalking co-eds as they walked home from pubs, Call me crazy,
but this didn't seem quite normal to me. I've been a little suspicious
of anything Ir'amp/Ve-related since.

Judging by the quality of Nihilistic's new game, I’ve had every right
to be, VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE-REDEMPTION is a vapid, repet-
itive debacle that will leave both casual roie-players and the Brads of
the world hunting for some garlic and holy water. The darkly sexual,
urban/gothic themes that my roomie once enjoyed are portrayed with
ail the foreboding of
a POKEMON game
played in a sunlit
garden with your
eight-year-old
nephew. Fear
comes not from the
bloodsuckers on
screen, but from the
mind-numbing
repetition necessi-
tated by the lack of
a proper save-game feature. Or, from the possibility that you’ll dislo-
cate a finger due to the incessant click-click combat that passes for
role-playing.

VAMPIRE: THE

MASQUERADE-

REDEMPTION

SEI

SEPTIUBER SOOD • cgw.gvn

GOMPgTER BAMINfi WDRIB

This IvThe

nniPFnmtieii

Explore a vast realtime 3D universe
that’s filled with hazards and secrets.

Research, develop and control
amazing new technology and vehicles.

STAR TREK® New Worlds"' Software62000lntnplay£menainment Cop. All Rights Reserved, m,® 60 2000 ParaniounlPlctures.All Rights ResorvcO.SlarTrek. New Worlds and related marks aeliedemaiteol Paramount Pictures. All ffights Reserved.
Interplay, the Interplay logo, "8y Gamers. For Gamers,”, 1 4“ East and the 14° East logo are trademarks of Interplay Eniortainment Corp. All Rights Reserved. Exclusively licensed and dlslribuled by Interplay Entertatnmenl Corp. All Rights Reserved,

REVIEW

Heston would’ve had a tough time pulling those
lines off; the fifth-rate crew Nihilistic has assem-
bled here doesn't stand a chance. All of the main
characters speak with young American voices
more appropriate for The Gap than for the grim
saga of a man who's seeking to redeem his soul in
old Prague and Vienna.

This clunker of a story is further hampered by
awkward gameplay and game mechanics. First and
foremost, there is no proper save-game feature.
Aside from the autosave that kicks in every time
you finish a level, the only way to save your
progress is by clicking on the ankh or cross in a
designated Haven. This leads to a great deal of
infuriating repetition that will likely cause a lot of
gamers to simply uninstall the game and return it.
It's hard to believe that Nihilistic could be so woe-
fully out of touch with the PC game market.

CHAOTIC EVIL Battles always turn inta anarchic messes where you're surrounded by enemies.
Not being able to pause the action while you give orders to your party members will take the control
of combat almost completely out of your hands.

Ahh, the Idiots of the Night. . .

Role-playing is completely absent in REDEMPTION. In traditional
RPG fashion, characters kill monsters to gather experience points
and loot. The former is used to bump up attributes like Strength and
Agility, and vampire Disciplines such as Mesmerize and Potence; the
latter is spent on armor, weapons, and other handy items. Despite
these similarities to other RPGs, I never felt like I was truly building
characters. There's no real interaction with NPCs. Branching dia-
logue involves only two or three possible responses, all of which lead
fo similar results. The linear plot made me feel like I was just putting
Christof and his pals through the motions.

And these idiots of the night don't make any beautiful music
together. Once you get your coterie filled out with three or four mem-

bers, gameplay moves from vaguely annoying to blood-boiling. Battles
become chaotic messes where you simply click on the nearest
baddie as quickly as possible in the hopes that it'll all be over soon.
While the hack’n’slash combat is incessant (I must have killed over a
hundred enemies trying to escape the Society of Leopold level
alone), you can’t pause the game to give orders or play with charac-
ter Al. All you can do is take control of one party member and hope
that the others do something reasonably intelligent.

Most of the time they don't. They're more apt to shoot you in your
back than watch it. They'll guzzle blood like it's going out of style, and
then waste it by invoking Disciplines to fight every little Ghoul Rat
that comes along. Replenishing blood during combat isn't much fun,
either. Draining enemies is almost impossible because while one vam-
pire tries to suck, the others will continue pounding the foe into dust.
The only positive is that enemies are even dumber than allies are.
They'll often watch battles, and sometimes won't move a muscle -
even while you're slicing them to ribbons.

Buff, You Ever Been to Prague?

REDEMPTION is a pretty good-looking game. The 3D engine is
attractive, albeit in a shallow, first-person-shooter style that doesn’t
emphasize the horrific settings and moody atmosphere. If supports
32-bit color and most high resolutions, though I found some battles
pretty jerky when playing at a standard (for my system)

1 024x768x32. Colored lighting really slowed things down. And
there's more. The third-person point-of-view doesn’t allow you to look
up, and it obscures what's directly in front of the selected character
by skewing at an odd angle. Characters don't move so much as
lurch. Audio quality is generally poor, thanks to some popping and an
apparent poor use of EAX.

The only saving grace for this title could be the Storyteller multi-
player mode. It allows gamers to recreate pen and paper role-playing
sessions online, with one player directly controlling the adventure as
the gamemaster. Storyteller could become an online sensation if the
Vampire community gets behind it. Games can already be found on
WON.net, though they’re limited to settings from the single-player
campaign at the moment (albeit ones dressed up with new monsters
and items placed out by the gamemaster), since the planned
"Embrace" level editor has yet to be released.

VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE-REDEMPTION is one of the
stupidest, most disappointing computer games that I've ever played.
All of the license’s promise has been completely wasted in a haze of
poor scripting, community-theatre voice acting, and idiotic design
decisions. Call Buffy Summers, polish up that crucifix, sharpen a few
stakes, get thee to a nunnery - avoid this one by any means
necessa^. KrtiV

SEPItMBER 2D0I1 •

CBMPOTEIt BAMING WORLD

FMPI Res

THG STAR TRGK® UNIVERSE IS GETTING BIQQGR...
BUT NOT BIG ENOUGH

INTERSTELLAR

CONCORDIUM^^

eXPGRlGNCG THG NGW METAVERSE THIS WINTER 2000

www.interplay.com/sfc2

rc\(dRcn

BY GAMERS. FOR CAMESa."

Visit www.esrb.org

or call l-800-771-3n2

Lui

for more info.

STARTnEK:Slsnie«iCommandiBV3lumellEinpiresalWar'‘'Sottw8ree2000InierplayEnieiiainmenlCorp. All Rights Reserved. '^,®&02000PafaxnounlPlcture$. All Rights Reserved. StarTtek and related etemenis
are tredemaiks of Paramount Pictures. Sorraelementsbasedupontheboardgamescreated by Amarillo Design Bureau01S77-2000. All Rights Reserved. Interplay, the Interplay logo, ‘By Gamers. For Gamers.* 14’ East
and the t4’ East logo are trademarks of Interplay EnlertainmenI Corp. Taldren and IheTaldren logo are Iradamahcsollbldrsn Inc Exclusively llcensad and dstrSruled by Interplay Etilerlaltimsnl Corp. All other trademarks
and copyrights are the property of their re^KCtive owners.

REVIEVU SPACE SIIVIUL.ATIOIM

A Trek combat game done right, but not in time to save the franchise

Academy Award

STAR TREK:

KLINGON

ACADEMY

reviewed by Thotnas L. McDonald

P laying Star Trek games has become such a numbing,
familiar experience that one is tempted to write
snappy review openings (like this one] before the CD
even hits the drive. So what does Interplay go and do after
driving their Trek license into the ground for years? They
actually make a decent frefc space simulator. KLINGON
ACADEMY is not perfect, mind you, but it is certainly the
best sim ever made with the Trek universe. Despite some
bugs and rough interface conventions, it is a remarkably
polished product.

Space sims have long taken their cues from Star Wars,
with its WWII dog-fighting feel: fast and nimble. The Star
Trek world, however, has always approached space combat
as though it were a

naval battle: slower.

heavier, and more tacti-
cal. It’s been very hard
to turn that into a bal-
anced game that is
both thrilling and an
accurate reflection of
the series. STARFLEET ACADEMY
took a stab, but failed due to out-
of-date graphics, overly complex
controls, and a limited view of the
scene. With its slick new engine

and more refined design, KLINGON ACADEMY largely overcomes
those problems.

It Is a Good Day to Die

Spread over 25 narrative missions and infinite custom encounters
(both solo and multiplayer), it is a game of quite impressive depth and
epic scope. There is an amazing array of ships, from the smallest,
most nimble Bird of Prey with its forward-facing weapons, to enor-
mous Dreadnoughts bristling with guns on every side. Naturally, you
play as the Klingons in the scripted mission, but there are also plenty
of Federation, Romulan, Thoilian, Gorn, and
Sha’kurian vessels, objects, and stations. The
game offers a very diverse experience, allow-
ing for faster (though never really “fast") turn-
ing dogfights to multi-ship fleet encounters
complete with escorts flying cover, capital
ships firing broadsides, and support vessels. In
the narrative game, you start with a small ship
and move up, but in the quick-game menu, any
ship or combination of ships can be config-
ured for a custom encounter. Multiplayer has
eight slots for team or solo games, and
competitors spend points to buy and outfit
their ships.

A sim like this can easily devolve into confu-
sion and micro-management hell, as was the
case with STARFLEET ACADEMY. KLINGON
avoids this in several ways. First of all, the view

CBW RATED

Good balance of
; action and tactics;
i interface renders
I many complex
I elements manage-
i able; tons of
I gameplay, thanks
9 custom

I A bad ship-vuarp-
I ing bug; ships
I tend to ram vuhen
I they should evade;
I missions can
I become very
I difficult.

options are much better, with an external camera and views out all
sides. The default, straight-ahead perspective works fine for ships
with only a forward-firing battery. A special gunnery mode provides a
decent solution to the problem of controlling weapons on four sides.
Essentially, this is a rotating “gunner's chair” that enables you to lock
a target and visually track it as it flies around your ship. A strip repre-
sents a flattened-out 360-degree panorama of your situation. When
an enemy comes into range of a weapon, an icon lights up to show
which side (port, starboard, fore, aft) can now fire. In this way, you
can man all weapons on all sides from a single place, while a helms-
man steers.

The many stations essential to controlling a large ship have also
been streamlined without losing any of their power. The engineer.

Requirements: Pentium tBBMHz. 32MB RAM. DirectX sunnd and
3D Support: DireclSD Multiplayer Support: l-B players via

video card. 3D arxeteralinn. Recommeniiecl Requirements; PenP'iim-lll 400MHz. 64MD R/
TCP/IP and UN.

Publisher: Interplay • Developer; 14 Degrees East • $44 * www.(nterplay.com * ESRB Rating: Teen

SEPriMBER 20DO • cjw.gimssiiot.c

eOMPOTEB SAMINe WORLD

RjpyilEW

A Tear in Space

While there are some reports of bugs involv-
ing hard crashes, I did not experience a single
lockup. I did, however, encounter one hell of a
glitch over and over again. When you warp into
a new sector, you do so cloaked. This gives you
plenty of time to assess the situation, gather your wits and forces,
and approach the target ships. A sensible strategy is to close in to
weapons range under cloak, then de-cloak and fire from a rear quar-
ter. This gives you several opening salvos before most ships can
respond and turn. When de-cloaking at close range, however, the tar-
get ship often vanishes. Almost every time it does this, the ship reap-
pears on your starboard and fires a full spread, usually causing some
hull damage. It all happens in a second, but I could get the glitch to
repeat about half the times I tried, most often when I was very close.

Aside from this bug, which is admittedly pretty heinous, the game
runs very well. Missions are interesting and complex, with many layers
and objectives. The only really annoying missions are those which
involve bombing a target on a planet, since targets can be small and
hard to find. Combined with sometimes overwhelming odds and no
in-mission save, this makes the game grindingly hard at times. While
enemy Al is okay at attack and maneuver, it also has a tendency to
ram when it should evade. All of these problems are frustrating, but
manageable. The important thing is that after years and years of
giving us awful Trek games, Interplay has atoned by creating one of
the best. Against all odds and expectations, KLINGON ACADEMY
emerges as a terrific, entertaining experience. 2317

helm, science, security, medical, targeting, and weapons stations pro-
vide fine control over a dazzling array of ship components. You may
need to tend to damage, reallocate power, steer, scan a target, prep
sick bay to handle the wounded, beam out a security force to take
over a ship, and overcharge weapons in a single battle. This could
easily overwhelm, but a combination of fairly-smart officer Al (which
improves with experience) and macros makes it much easier. Of par-
ticular importance are customizable power macros that instantly
reconfigure a ship for different purpos-
es, ranging from offensive action to
warping out. There are plenty of map-
pable hot keys to instantly get to the
command you want (though more of
these would have been welcome). The
result is a very satisfying balance
between commanding and fighting.

Glorious Visuals

While prone to frame skips - and not
state-of-the-art, visually - KLINGON
ACADEMY looks ve^ good. The models
are excellent, but some textures are a
little rough. Damage modeling is very
impressive, with effective explosions and entire sections of huge star-
ships flying off. The designers have taken great pains not only to
create an interesting looking “spacescape," but one that also has
some effect on gameplay. Battles may take place in the orange fog of
a gas giant or inside blue planetary rings. To give this some added
weight, each landscape may have an effect on ship performance. For
instance, solar coronas affect energy-based weapons and kill crews
when shields go down, while others impair sensors or effect shields.

The movies that run between missions are quite nicely done. The
plot line is nothing special - a cadet leaves the Academy, takes part
In a Klingon invasion, foils yet another traitor subplot, etc. - but the
execution is very professional. Essentially a prequel to Star Trek VI:
The Undiscovered Country, KLINGON ACADEMY uses Christopher
Piummer to great effect as the Shakespeare-spouting General
Chang, one of the few interesting Klingon characters. Several other
good performances - including David Warner reprising his role as
Chancellor Gorkon - and some deoent dialogue, character insight,
and production values make these sequences appealing despite the
boiler-plate storyline. A handy utility lets you view these scenes as a
continuous, 90-minute movie without playing the game. The movies
account for the whopping six-disc size of the package.

tOMPUIEtl 6AMIN6 WORID

EVOLVA upraots the tree of life

You Say You Wanna EvolutionP

ncremeRtal changes over time are fine, but if you want to kick
alien butt, you better be able to adapt quickly. As one of Uie
EVOLVA, you will be able to do precisely that. Although the plot is
generic (cleanse yet another alien infestation), the ability to mutate
your team of Genohunters by extracting DNA from the giblets of slain
enemies adds interesting evolutionary elements to this third-person
shooter. And since each of your four Genohunters has different
strengths and weaknesses, there are strategic considerations as well,
At the heart of this genre-blending game is the mutator screen,
Once you absorb enough alien DNA, you have the option to mutate
each of your Genohunters. With each mutation, there are two evolu-
tionary paths to choose from. Do you prefer to upgrade weapons or
to increase speed and agility? Do you balance your Genohunter team
or make each member a specialist? The choices are yours, and theo-
retically, you have nearly an infinite number of mutation possibilities. In
many cases, however, the dif-
ferences are too subtle to
have much impact. Still, by
the end of the game, you will
have seen more mutations
than a zookeeper in
Chernobyl.

Totally Organic...

As most of the game takes place outdoors, there are (thankfully) no
industrial-style corridors, instead, the texture palette and “living archi-
tecture” give the game an organic feel. Even indoors, EVOLVA man-
ages to avoid slipping into the dreaded “corridor crawl" by using both
curved and sloping tunnels. Although some of the later levels may
seem barren, the only visual disruption to the feel of the game comes
from cartoon-like crystal structures. Sometimes less is more.

Other visual treats include a semi-reflective skin for your squad of
Genohunters that changes color based on the lighting. Your
Genohunters will also change appearance depending on their evolu-
tionary path and weapon selection. Weapon pyrotechnics do not dis-
appoint. Although visual quality can be adjusted for your machine, at
lower settings the graphics can be unimpressive. More importantly, at
very low settings.

EVOLVA

reviewed by Joe "Biter” Bailey

the fogging dis-
tance decreases
so much that

CGW RATED

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST A ^picai large-scale
battle In EVOLVA not only provides excitement, but
once you win you can suck up all the monsters’
DNA to augment your squad.

ranged weapons lose their value. The resulting surprise attacks will
lead to frequent reloads.

Kleenex Anyone?

Of the 1 0 weapons available by game's end, one really stands
out. For lack of a better description, the weapon is a lethal loogie.
Unlike UT's bio-sludge, this ordnance comes from within. And not
only will it slow your enemies down, it is also highly flammable -
watch out for the backsplash. Defensive devices are also available
and include temporary invisibility and a shield generator. All
weapons include a secondary mode, and each is useful in specific
circumstances.

EVOLVA's levels are most effective when they present challenges
other than gauntlet runs. The sinking-island level is a real gem.
Fighting off aliens while racing rising water create an urgency that
makes for excellent gaming. While movement through the 1 2 large
levels often requires brains as well as brawn, strategic choices are
limited to placement options and choosing the best team member for
the current task. There are no formations and you cannot specify
modes such as defend or hold. Thankfully, the Al is good enough that
you can concentrate on the one Genohunter under your direct control
without worrying about the others.

The biggest weakness in EVOLVA is the multiplayer-connection
interface. You need to know the IP address of the host server to join
a game, but there is no utility for finding one. Note to developers:
Multiplayer gaming should never be more than three clicks away,
period. As an alternative, you can play the game on Heat.net.
Unfortunately, the few times opponents were found there, network
latency was absolutely abysmal.

Despite the connection issues, EVOLVA gets most things right, and
it is both a challenging and enjoyable game. Hopefully, natural selec-
tion will keep this one on the store shelves for a long time.

Reiiiiiremeiits: Pofiiiiini 233MII2, 450MB li;ir(i drive spece, G4MB RAM, 4x CD-ROM, 4M8 Vooiioo or orioivalent, 3D caul. Recommended Requirements; Pentium-
Ill 500, W II UlUe or eoulvalenl 3D Support: Dlrecl3D. Multiplayer Support: LAN, imemel (2-8 {rlayers}, one CD per player.

Publisher; Interplay • Developer: Computer Artworks Ltd. < $45 • www.interplay.com
ESRB Rating: Teen; animated blood, pore, and violence.

Over 100 historical scenarios -
fl-om Copenhagen to the Battle
, of the Nile and more!

Lush 3D landscapes provide
tactical obstacles!

Captain the most memorable
sailing ships in history!

www.talonsoft.com H

WeTMake History” §3

C Copyright 2000 by TiiloiiSolt Inc. TnlonSuaisa.siibsidinrv ofTitkc-Ttvo Interactive .Sufttrare Inc. Developed by
'Akellu. All other trademarks and copyrights arc properties of their respective owTiers^vT. -

[•

REVIEW

STRATEGY

EARTH 2150 exceeds its standard RTS model with depth and subtlety

Rich Earth

EARTH 2150

f we're going to have yet another real-time strategy clone with a
gratuitous 3D graphics engine, it should at least be as good as
this one.

EARTH 2150 is rendered in full polygonal glory, so you can rotate
the map, tilt it, zoom in and out, and watch tanks jostle and bob over
hill and dale. This is almost entirely useless while actually playing the
game, but you'll feel like you’re getting your money's worth from your
accelerator card, and it makes for
good screenshots. So bless their
German hearts at TopWare
Interactive for actually making a
great real-time strategy game to
go along with their fancy 3D
graphics, because God knows
the last thing we need is just

another pointlessly pretty engine.

Before we get loo carried away singing their praises, we’d like to
remind TopWare and their publisher that we don't appreciate it when
they leave all the important details out of a game's manual so they
can charge us $20 for a strategy guide. There
are big, fat, ozone-layer-sized holes in the
EARTH 2150 manual where there should have
been lists, tables, and explanations. Forcing us
through a lot of trial and error because they
couldn't be bothered to give us information we
need is not a good way to ensure replay value.

Fortunately, there are other things in EARTH
2150 to ensure replay value. The three sides
aren't as dramatically different as
STARCRAFT's, but they have subtle strengths
and weaknesses that emerge the longer you
play the game. Researching your way up each
...but thei/ forgot side's technology tree forces some hard
to finish the game
manual.

CGW RATED

TopUVare managed
to fuse togeUier a
few dozen diverse
elements and
I fashion a great
RTS...

choices, often dictated by what your opponent is doing. Does he
have lots of flying units? Back off the slow cannons and improve your
chain guns and 20mm shells. Is he throwing slow armored chassis at
you? Go for the lasers to overheat his metal behemoths. Is he putting
shields on his buildings and units? Forget the energy weapons and
research long-range rockets. Since you won’t be able to unlock the
whole lech tree in most games, someone will eventually trump some-
one else, tilting the balance of technology and gaining the upper
hand. This is no game about mere tank rushes.

Because there’s a solid Al at work, you’ll gel a lot of mileage
from the flexible skirmish mode and the streamlined map editor.

EARTH 21 50's Al succeeds in the two areas where most RTS
games fail - the computer is adept al unit pathfinding and at launch-
ing effective assaults.

You’ll also gel a lot of mileage from the single-player campaigns,
which are good for playing several times over with their clever bal-
ance of tactical necessity and long-term strategic thinking. To win the
campaign, you have to save up a certain amount of resources. This is
money in the bank, as it were, that you won’t be able to spend on
building or research during a mission. You have to minimize losses
and use your experienced units wisely, so there's a deeper sense of
involvement than you get in most mission-based RTS games.

Early on, it seems that EARTH 2150 suffers from feature creep,
taking an “everything but the kitchen sink" approach to gamepiay:
Weather, diurnal cycles, modular unit design, tunneling, ammo sup-
plies, weapons checks and balances, and battle plans down to indi-
vidual units are some of the things you’ll have to manage while fight-
ing battles. But since you can issue orders while the game is paused,
and since you can automate much of this, the game is easier than
you'd expect. What emerges after a three- or four-mission learning
process is a deep and varied game with a shiny veneer. And what
emerges after several hours of exploring its features is one of the
best, and best-looking, RTS games in the crowded genre.

Requirements: Pentium-ll 23aMHz aZMB RAM, 451MB lianl drive space. 30 accelsiBtor. Recoirnnanded R8qffiKmeQlK.[^TiauhlTI.4l]0ltlH2;TB^MB HAM, 961MB
had drive space. 16M0 3D cad. 30 Support: Oliecl 30 Multiplayer Support: LAN. iRlernet (2-8 players), modem (2 players), one CD per player.

Publisher: Matte) Interactive • Developer: TopWare Interactive • S4D • www.mattel.com • ESR8 Rating: Teen; animated violence.

SEPTtMBtR 2000 • cgw.gimespot

COMPIIIER GAMING WEIRLD

GETTING THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION IS EASY,
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SETTLERS

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Gameplay is simple to learn and tough to rooster as you fate

H the challenge of developing an economy ond building an Infrastrui
thot will ollow your military to expand and conquer.

Tl e Settlers III Ultimate Collection contoins one of the

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Simply the best golfing experience available on the PC

It Don’t Mean a Thing if
It Ain’t Got That Swing

PGA

CHAMPIONSHIP
GOLF 2000

T he best golf sim available for the PC. Them's fighting words to
a lot of PC golf nuts, to whom the LINKS or JACK NICKLAUS
series are the epitome of all a golf sim should be. But Sierra's
PGA CHAMPIONSHIP GOLF 2000, with its wonderful new
TrueSwing 3 interface, provides the most golfing fun that can be had
short of actually hitting the links.

Golf sims have used some type of “click-meter'’ interface for the
swing since Moses wore shorts. But the problem with these is that
they are inher-

ently artificial

and distance the
player from the
action on the
screen. Line up
the shot, click a
spot on the
screen, try to
catch a line as it
hits a mark, click
again, then try to
catch the line as

hits another mark with another click. Then sit back and watch the on-
screen golfer swing.

Compare that with the mouse swing in PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
GOLF 2000, in which you move the on-screen golfer's club into the
back swing and forward swing in synch with your mouse, the golfer's
every movement reflecting your mouse movements in real time. As
simple as it sounds, when executed properly (as it is here) the differ-
ence in the gameplay is enormous. Factors such as the tempo of your
swing make a big difference in your shots - just as in the real deal.
Shots around the green become a matter of kinesthetic intuition,
rather than a rational deliberation over clicks on a swing-meter. Stuck
under some trees? Instead of clicking on a “punch shot" option in a
menu, click-click-clicking, and then watching the computer make the
shot, with TrueSwing you place the bail forward in your stance, adjust
your feet, take a short backswing, and "poke"
the ball low and hard. And the first time you do
that - and the golfer reacts in real time to your
hand movement and executes the shot the
same way you'd do it on the real course -
you’ll sit back, smile, and realize: This is virtual
golf at its best.

A superb swing interface would be wasted
without a good golf simulation in which to use
it. The good news continues, as PGA
CHAMPIONSHIP GOLF 2000 boasts an
impressive physics model, tweaked to be even
better than last year’s version. Courses are
rendered in beautiful 3D, with totally config-

CGW RATED

A swing interface
that makes every*
thing else feel
archaic; the
course architect
ensures a wealth
of free courses.

Internet play is
limited to
UUon.net.

urable cameras. Tour seasons can be created, each tournament
having its specific entry requirements, cut, and purse, with career
records and earnings tracked. If you've ever played weekend golf with
your buddies, placing wild side bets on greenies, sandies, and so on,
then you'll be pleased to see that side bets are available in the game.
Computer opponents can be created with any combination of skills,
and a learning mode can be turned on, allowing the Al player to
increase in skill with experience. If you want to play other human play-
ers, you can play via LAN or on Won.net (alas, no direct IP to IP
Internet play).

Last, but far from least, is the course designer, which is not only a
blast to toy with, but ensures a wealth of free new courses on the
Internet. Improvements in the course designer allow courses
designed in PGA CHAMPIONSHIP GOLF 2000 to be more detailed
than those for the 1 999 version.

In the end. TrueSwing 3 sets this game as high above its competi-
tion as Tiger Woods sits above his. If you want the best golf sim
experience available today. PGA CHAMPIONSHIP GOLF 2000 is the
only choice,

Requirements: Pentium 166MHz. 32MB HAM. 4x CD-ROM, mouse. Recoi
3D Support: None. Multiplayer Support: 4 players via Internet (Itimuoli Won.net), IPX/LAN. nr modem.

Requirements: PenSliin-ll26eMH( B4MB RAM. 8x CQ-ROMi'

Publisher: Sierra Sports « Developer: Headgate Studios ■ $30 « www.sierrasporfs.com » ESRB Bating: Everyone

Where Turn Based and Real Time Meet...
Strategy Gaming will Never be the Same!
Check Out the Latest on
Battle Isle: The Andosia War at

battleisle.com

www.bluebyle.com

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Pnduilsliaif bem nibniittdie dig ISIB tad at gadiiag rahngt.

REVIEW

ROUE-RLAYIIMQ

A side from the unabashedly sexist ad campaign (you've seen
the hot elf chained to the wall while her busty friends try to
free her from the evil lizardman and scantily-clad Drow...
oops, I mean dark elf], it’s hard to find problems with EUERQUEST. It’s
even harder to find problems with RUINS OF KUNARK, the expansion
for the wildly successful massively-multiplayer online role-playing
game that has destroyed the lives of thousands. With RUINS OF
KUNARK, Verant takes the world of Norrath into new territory with the
addition of a new island, a new race, and new baddies to thump.

EVERQUEST:
RUINS OF
KUNARK

reviewed by Alex Handy

Wide Open Spaces

Easily the most exciting feature
of KUNARK is the expanded
world. The continent of Kunark is
home to an incredible variety of
areas for players to explore,
ranging from the newbie-friendly
plains and swamps around the
Iskar city of Cabilis, to the deadly
Frontier Mountains and the
Emerald Jungle, suitable for highly experienced players. The new
areas help alleviate the overcrowding that has been dragging
EVERQUEST down over the past few months. With this update,

Verant also has addressed the problem of players camping out by
enemy respawn locations. While this can still
be a problem on the main continents of Noralh
(albeit much less so), monsters abound in
such large numbers that there's no need to
camp out and wait for them. Fortunately, there
are plenty of ships that will take you to Kunark,
allowing players to quickly spread out over the
new southern lands.

The new race and its new tracts of land
have been welcomed with open arms by
EverQuesters, The Iskar, despite being only a
few months old, are a thriving race. And now
that players can exceed the previous limit of
level 50, there are a lot of exceptionally power-
ful lizardmen and lizardwomen running amok.

To the casual observer, the most obvious

improvement to the game is the graphics engine. Everything in the
world of Norrath is now alive. You can actually see characters fidget,
animals ripple with breath, and trees sway in the breeze. It's unusual
to see such graphic splendor in an online RPG, but RUINS OF
KUNARK manages to display some of the best graphics anywhere on
the PC.

Chinks in the Chainmail

There are still a few problems with EVERQUEST, however. For
starters, the lag and overcrowding are steadily increasing again, It
seems as though Verant is plugging a dam with this expansion (albeit
with a large finger), but the pressure of overcrowding and hideous
ping times is beginning to build again. Hopefully, the addition of
KUNARK will help prolong the inevitable until other solutions can be
found. There are also a few quirks in the interface to deal with: Some
mouse clicks can get lost when you’re rummaging through your
inventory, and it’s occasionally
difficult to select targets by click-
ing on them.

These are extremely minor
problems, however, when you
consider that EVERQUEST
delivers online role-playing like
no other game right now.

Almost everything here is done

perfectly. In every genre there’s a leader that unquestionably beats
out the competition: EVERQUEST is the HALFLIFE of the online
RPG world.

Requirements; Periium 20DMH1 S4M6 RAM. 3D accelerator caril w/ SMB. BOOMS tianJ drive space, Iniemat connection. Recommended Requirements; f^ntluin
dODMKz, 128MB RAM. DSL or cable modem. 3D Support: DirecQD Multiplayer Support: Duh.

PublisliBr: Sony • Developer: Verant • $4D setup, plus SID per month. • www.everque8Lcom • ESRB Rating; Teen; animated bleed and
gore, suggestive themes.

SEPTEMBER 2000 •

COUPOTER BAMIRB WORLD

Just when you mustered the art of war...

The gods changed the rules.

Check Out the latest on The Settlers IV at

settlers4.com

www.bluebyte.iom

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REVIEW

QUICK HITS

THE OPERATIONAL ART OF WAR: CENTORY
OF WARFARE

W argamers can be forgiven for being a little confused by the succession of titles (six
in total) released by TalonSoft under the rubric of its THE OPERATIONAL ART OF
WAR (TOAW) game system. CENTURY OF WARFARE (COW) combines all five
previous titles into a single package, along with some additional scenarios to boot.

Like most compilation packs, its value depends in part on which components you've
already paid for. The conversion of TOAW to the TOAW2 engine revitalized many older
scenarios; user-created scenarios - many of which are excellent, by the way - can be
. i i . . imported as well. COW also features new WWI scenarios,

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ and even a few unadvertised new WWI I battles.

If you own both TOAW 2 and TOAW: WARGAME OF THE
YEAR, you might not get full value for your money from COW. Otherwise, it represents a
significant addition to a proven and highly enjoyable game system and is worthy of any
wargamer's library. -Tim Carter

Genre; Wargame * Publisher: TalonSoft * S40 • www.talonsott.cain • BSAC Rating; Violence;
damage to realistic objects,

TEST DRIVE: LEMANS

I Genre; Driving • Publisher: Infogrames *
Developer: Eutechnyx * $30 « www.info-
I grames.com » ESRB Rating: Everyone

I nfogrames' latest arcade-racer offering,
TEST DRIVE LE MANS, touts a realistic,
24-hour, Le Mans-style race. But if sitting
in front of your computer driving for 24
hours adds to realism, then why would you
play an arcade racer for 24 hours? The
shoddiness of this game begins with the
controls: The game also had problems rec-
ognizing my

^ y assortment of

steering wheels, and so I was forced to use
the keyboard, A keyboard just doesn't cut it
for this dedicated racing-sim guru. Racing
in arcade and championship modes was
fine, but with no options to adjust the com-
puter-controlled cars, a lack of a rear-view
mirror, a bland announcer, and no multiplay-
er features, racing TEST DRIVE LE MANS
quickly became tedious and boring. Even
though the game has serviceable graphics,
nice visual effects, and decent arcade-style
racing, it didn't live up to its promise of a
realistic driving experience. In the end,
you're better off dumping a turbo charger
into your old Toyota Corolla than driving this
box of rusty bolts. -Wade “Sensei" Hermes

ElYING HEROES

Genre: Action • Publisher; Take 2
Interactive « Developer: Pterodon and
Illusion Softworks * $30 ■
www.talonsoft.com * ESRB Rating: Teen;
animated violence, mild language.

D o not be fooled by its value pricing
and weak cover art; FLYING HEROES
is a surprisingly enjoyable game.

It offers a fresh lake on the popular tour-
nament-style shooter, with the added
dimension of flight. All gaming action takes
place in flyable “aircraft" which includes

dragons, zep-

ik -A ik i pelins, and

winged beer-

barrels. The weaponry is just as diverse,
but is mostly derivative of things you've
seen before. Graphics are well rendered,
with all of the expected bells and whistles.
The game improves the standard single-

Ij SEPTEMBER 2000 • cgw.gamespol.i

player tournament ladder
by adding economic
incentives; frags and
side-quests earn you
money that can be used
to upgrade your “air-
craft" and weapons, and
a loan shark is provided
for those times when you
need money immediately
(just make sure you pay
him off quickly).

Regrettably, online play
is still an unknown due
to a lack of players on
Heat.nel (probably
because of the game's
recent release).

Had FLYING HEROES run without a
hitch, I could have ignored the adequate
but uninspired sound and cheesy voice act-
ing, and would probably have rated it four

stars, Unfortunately, I had to disable my joy-
stick port to get it to run. Despite these
minor faults, if you like tournament-style
shooters, FLYING HEROES deserves a look.
-Joe “Biter" Bailey

E8MPBIER 6AHIH6 HORIB

. liademark ol Jack Ryan Enterprises, Ltd.

. trademark of Red Storm Entertainment, tnc. Red Storm Entertainment

O 2000 Red Storm Entertainment, Inc. Ail rights reserved. Covert Operations Essentials Is i
and Larry Bond. Other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks.

A SOLDO ISN'T BORN.

BRING TRUE-LIFE COMBAT TACTICS

TO YOUR RAINBOW SIX'^^ BATTLES.

You don't become a member of Team. Rainbow
through luck, heritage or twist of fate. You ' ^
only do it through hard work and intense
training. Now you can learn combat tactics
. from true military experts — then test your new
skills in one of nine brand-new game levels. So
by the end, you'll be the deadliest weapon on the
Rainbow Six battlefield.

• NINE ALL-NEW LEVELS FEATURING NEVER-
BEFORE-SEEN MISSIONS AND GAMEPLAY

• STAND-ALONE FUNCTIONALITY— DOESN'T
REQUIRE PREVIOUS VERSIONS OF RAINBOW
SIXOR ROGUE SPEAR

• CUSTOM MISSION FEATURE ALLOWS YOU TO
CHOOSE GAME TYPE, MAP AND DIFFICULTY

• GAIN CERTIFIOATES IN COMBAT SUBJECTS
INCLUDING HOSTAGE NEGOTIATION. KIT
SELECTION, INTEL PHOTO ANALYSIS AND MORE

ARMY MEN: WORLD WAR ARMY MEN: AIR TACTICS

REVIEW

3 DO’s toy-soldier game ARMY
MEN, in which squads of efernaliy-
warring Green and Tan miniatures
spring to life for your plastic-melting
pleasure, created some excitement
upon its January 1999 debut. Yet,
underneath the cool concept lay a title
hindered by sloppy controls, repetitive
gameplay, and problematic program-
ming - a situation made all the worse
when subsequent sequels offered pre-
cious few upgrades. Into this lacklus-
ter environment wade the latest install-
ments in the bargain-priced franchise,

ARMY MEN: WORLD WAR and ARMY
MEN: AIR TACTICS,

Neither truly revitalizes the franchise,
nor do they effectively deal with key
trouble spots. Movement continues to
be mired by clumsy controls that'll
have you inadvertently bumping into
and becoming trapped in the scenery.

Ordnance frequently misses its mark,
even when crosshairs and tracers indi-
cate a direct hit. And both are plagued with jumpy camera
^ movement, potential lockups, and a top-down perspective

that looks antiquated and unfairly conceals your enemy,

AIR TACTICS is certainly the more annoying of the two. Though you do gel a chance to
fly an attack helicopter into Tan territory and experience numerous real and miniaturized
environments among 20 unique missions, the chopper-confined gameplay feels limiting
and is simply more work than play. Irritating insects plague your every move. Elevation
adjustments are automatic and dictated by the height of the surrounding terrain. And the
lack of independent viewing means you can’t scroll over upcoming enemy strongholds in
advance of flying into them.

WORLD WAR, on the other hand, has the common decency to pack a less restrictive
design and a little variety within the flawed ARMY MEN framework. It lets you switch con-
trols between soldiers, and command several men concurrently, navigate a variety of
WWII-inspired vehicles, and utilize a wide range of weapons, from mortars to sniper rifles
to napalm air strikes. The pre-game tutorial is instructive, and the independent camera
control offers a graphic lay of the land before you get there. And to make things interest-
ing, your own men are susceptible to friendly fire. Far from perfect, ARMY MEN; WORLD
WAR is the better of two lackluster games. -Gordon Goble

rGenre; Action • Publisher: 3D0 * S20 * www.3do.coin * ESRB Rating: Everyone

SIMGITY 3D00 UNLIMITED

Genre: Strategy • Publisher: Maxis * S4D •
www.simcily.com ■ ESRB Rating; Everyone

I f you’re a SimMegalomaniac suffering
from extreme SimWithdrawl because of a
lack of new challenges and tortures to
impose upon your SimCitizenry, your new fix
has arrived. Unfortunately, like most fixes,
this one’s a bit overpriced.

Among the highlights for this term is the
. 1*4 Building

^ ^ ^ ^ Architect,

which allows you to design any size or com-
plexity of building; it’ll bring out the Frank
Lloyd Wright in all of us. With a few mouse-
clicks, you can also convert a city to a
European - or the especially cool-looking
Oriental - architecture set.

Also new are the mission-based scenar-
ios (including nuclear disasters, freedom
from mob rule, etc.). Those with Job-like
patience can create their own with the
extremely complicated Scenario Editor.

Feeling a tad sadistic? Then introduce
your loyal subjects to new disasters, includ-
ing Toxic clouds, whirlpools, locust plagues,
and falling space junk (but hey, Maxis,
where's Godzilla?),

If you're new to the SlMClTY series,
UNLIMITED is an excellent introduction to
the genre. But I think it would have been
more fair to faithful fans for Maxis to have
priced this as an add-on disk for SlMClTY
3000, instead of forcing current owners to
buy the game again, It's enough to make
3000 lose a few points in the popularity
polls. -Mark Brooks

LEMMINGS REVOLUTION

Genre; Puzzle < Publisher; TalonSoft •
Developer: Psygnosis/Take 2
S20 * www.talonsoft.CDm
ESRB Rating: Everyone

S uccess in game design is a double-
edged sword. Sure, the money is nice,
but a successful game inevitably
demands a sequel, which almost invariably
requires the perversion of an elegantly-
balanced design with gimmickry in the
name of novelty.

Fortunately, the gimmicky twist employed
in LEMMINGS REVOLUTION - wrapping the
traditionally

-k-k -k -k 2D levels

around a 3D

cylinder - adds nothing of interest to the
long-running LEMMINGS franchise, which
means that it does nothing to pervert the

elegant simplicity of one of
the best puzzle games
going. Once your eye accli-
mates to the whirling 3D
weirdness, you'll find your
good ol' lemming friends up
to their good ol' tricks -
blindly bopping their cute
green mops toward horren-
dous deaths, requiring
gamers to step in and help
the tribe block, bash, build,
and climb its way out of 1 00
deviously designed death-
trap levels.

New puzzle elements,
like gravity-flipping gates,
transporters, laser switches,
and trampolines add April
freshness to this perennial
puzzle-fan favorite.

-Chris Lombardi

CBMPVTER 6IIMIN6 WORLD

"The rush of flying at 30 fe^
and 90 knots is unsurpassed.

Combat Sim

www.enemyengaQed.com

miwwwiw

emp¥0

HARDWARE

IN SEARCH OF THE ULTIMATE
GAMING RIG • REVIEWS • NEWS

A PARTITION BACKUP MAKES REINSTAILING WINDOWS ALMOST PLEASANT

Saving Vour Worid

by Loyd Case

H ere’s the situation: Windows has
become slow as molasses over a
period of 18 months. Defragging
doesn’t help; the uninstaller chokes; and
every time you run scandisk, it always
finds errors, So, you back up your criti-
cal data and reformat the hard drive.

Since you've been housecleaning, you
decide it’s time to upgrade your mother-
board, so you now have a nice new
board that supports PC133 memory.
The chipset on the new board is so
new, you’ve had to install a veritable
host of new drivers. You finally load
up a few games, your office applica-
tions, DirectX, and all your hardware
drivers. You’re done, right?

Wrong. If you’d like to save yourself this
headache again in six months or a year,
then you’re not done yet. Before you start
back into hot and heavy gaming, it’s time
to back up the main partition on your hard
drive. If you ever have to do a clean install
of Windows from scratch, a partition back-
up makes life much, much easier.

Your Hard Drive

Partitioning the drive is simply building a
layout of data on the drive that your oper-
ating system can interpret as volumes,
files, and directories. The base volume is
the partition. A single drive can actually be
split into multiple partitions. For example,
you may have a single, large drive split
into two partitions, a C and a D drive. I
generally prefer to have two separate,
smaller hard drives, each partitioned into a

single volume. Call me paranoid, but hav-
ing two physical drives gives me a sense
of security.

Backing up the partition is essentially
making a “snapshot” of your system at one

Read this article in its entirety before following any of the
steps in iil Before you nuke any drive partitions, be sure to
back up your data files, and copy the Info to reconnect to
your ISP so you can access the Internet after reinstalling.

moment in time. When you back up a parti-
tion, you back up everything about the par-
tition: the directory structure as well as
the files. However, modern partition back-
up tools are very smart about sizing parti-
tions, so you don’t necessarily have to rein-
stall the backup file to an identical drive —
which makes partition backup an ideal tool
for upgrading hard drives also.

The Ghost in the Machine

There are several partition backup utili-
ties on the market, but my tool of choice is
Norton Ghost, which comes in both corpo-
rate and personal versions. The personal
version is very inexpensive, and pretty
easy to use.

If you have two hard drives in your sys-
tem, your best bet is to have one be your
everyday drive, and put the Ghost image
on the other. That way, should
your main drive go belly
up, you’ve still

GADGET OF THE MONTH

W hile the Cult of Palm is alive and well and living here at CGW, could it
be that the PaImPilot has met its match? Compaq's new PDA, which uses
Microsoft's Powered Pocket PC operating system, offers a color 320x240x4096
color TFT display, 32MB of memory, audio support (MP3 and WMA playback), and standard
applications like Microsoft Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, Outlook, Internet Explorer, and Wndows
Media Player, its USB connectivity makes hot-syncing a much faster process, and will help move
MP3 and WMA files onto the unit faster, too. The unit's rated battery life is 1 2 hours per charge, but
your mileage may vary. The iPAQ also has a standard PC Card slot for expansion, so you can add a
network card, modem, or additional storage, Compaq is also offering an 1 1Mbps wireless networking
card, making network connectivity as easy as coming within operating range of a wireless LAN.

Compaq iPAQ H3600 Pocket PC • $499 • www.compaq.com/products/handheltls/pocke^c/

I SEPIEMEER 2000 • cgw.ganespol.ci

HARIDWARE

got a clean image to restore to the new drive. But if
you’re living on a single hard drive, and many of us
are, you’ll want to use Windows' FDISK utility to
create two partitions on that drive. So follow these
steps:

Create a bootable floppy disk (format the disk in
Windows and select the “copy system files” option),
and copy these utilities to it: FDISK, FORMAT, and
MSCDEX. These can be found in the C;\WIN-
DOWS\ COMMAND folder. You’ll also want your CD-
ROM drive’s DOS driver.

You'll need to create two DOS startup text files,
AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS. In CONFIG.SYS,
you’ll want to set up your CD-ROM drive’s driver
with the following:

DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS

DEVICE=MTMCD.SYS /D:CDROM

In AUTOEXEC.BAT, you'll want to have a line for
MSCDEX, DOS’ CD-ROM extension:

MSCDEX /D:CDROM

Before you nuke anything, make sure that your
system can boot using this floppy disk, and that you
can read a CD-ROM disk in DOS. If you can't, check
the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT startup files
to make sure you’ve got the right syntax, and that
all the needed files are on the floppy disk.

Now that you’ve backed up your needed data files

(you did, didn't you?), put the bootable floppy into
the floppy drive, and boot using it. Make sure you've
got your Windows CD-ROM handy. Now, take sever-
al deep breaths, and run the FDISK utility. Go ahead
and delete the primary partition.

In creating two new partitions, I generally use the
two-thirds/one-third rule, making the C drive the
larger partition and the D drive the smaller. So, on a
20GB drive, the primary partition would be 13.4GB,
and the second partition would be 6.6GB. Once
you’ve created these partitions, reboot your system
using the floppy disk, and now format both of these
new partitions. You’ll have some time here, so go
grab a cold one.

Once both new drive partitions are formatted,
you’re ready to run Windows setup.

Once the Windows install completes, get your ISP
software or configurations in place, and make sure
you can connect to the Internet. Add graphics and
sound card drivers to taste and simmer. Now, install
DirectX 7.0a, and whatever business apps you use
on a daily basis.

Now we’re ready to take our “snapshot” using
Ghost. In our example, we'll look at backing up a
partition, but backing up a drive is pretty much the
same thing, except that you can include multiple
partitions.

NetBIOS

Options

BACK IT UP

If you’re backing up a partition with a lot data (more than 2CB), you’ll
want to set up the Ghost options to include automatic spanning and auto-
naming of the span tiles. Ghost prefers to create multiple image files of
2GB or less. Auto-spanning takes care of this without prompting you, and
auto-namlng will give each span file the same base name.

After the initial setup, you tiien launch into
the partition backup process. If you're back-
ing up from within Windows, you can use
the mouse, but the menus are very easy to
navigate with the keyboard when you’re run-
ning in DOS, too. The base menu is always
automatically selected, and you move the
selection cursor by using the arrow keys on
the keyboard. The right arrow launches cas-
caded menus. Move the menu choices out
and select local, partition, then “To Image."

Partiticn jo Partition

After you type in the file name, you're asked if you
want the file to be compressed. I generally choose
the “fasf setting, which Is a good compromise
between speed and disc space. If you have a fairly
small second partition, you may want to choose the
high compression option, but it will take a lot longer.

Rnally, the backup starts. Ghost gives you a lot of status data.
Including elapsed time, how fast the backup is progressing and how
many megabytes have been backed up.

• SEPTEMBER 2000

COMPVIEH EAHINS WDRID

HARDWARE

Image Restoration

When it comes time to restore
the partition backup, first make
sure you've copied off any valu-
able data files from the partition
to be restored. This may
include items like your
Favorites folder, your ISP settings, any
email, and so on. Create a bootable floppy disk,
and copy the Ghost executable {GHOST.EXE) to
it. When you restore a partition, you OVER-
WRITE everything on that drive. Remember,
Ghost only creates a snapshot in time of your
hard drive. As you use your system, you’U be
adding new apps, creating new data, and gener-
ating other files. Make sure anything you want to
keep is stored away safely. Then you can restore
the old partition.

The process of restoring a partition is similar to

NORTON’S GOOST:
PERSONAL EOITION

Price: $63

Manufacturer: ^antec
Contact: www.syinantec.com

backing it up. However, there are several extra
steps. First, you have to choose the backup file
name. That’s easy. Then you have to tell Ghost
the source partition you want rest ored. Most of
the time, there’s only one choice.

BACK FROM THE DEAD

The next step - and the potentially dangerous one - is to pick the target partition. Once you launch the restore, It's irreversible. So

make sure you pick the correct destination drive AND the correct destination partition. Double check before you hit OK. There’s no

feeling quite as bleak as when you realize you’ve just restored Uie wrong partition to the wrong drive.

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Sut what if all you really want is
an individual file? That’s no prob-
lem. Ghost Personal Edition
comes with a cool tool called
Ghost Explorer, an application
that lets you peek into the back-
up file and even extract individual
files. As the name implies, it
bears a strong resemblance to
the Windows Explorer. So there's
really nothing to stop you from
making frequent backups using
Ghost; just remember to keep
that first one around, so you can
do a clean install of Windows
without the headaches.

SEPTEMBER 2000 • cgw.gai

COMPUIER GAMINE WORLD

I don't know really how to say this, but I had a few doubts about the buzz
on your new RADEON"' and RADEON'" DDR gamer boards. 1 checked out your
so-called RADEON™ GPU with its integrated T&L acceleration and ultra-fast DDR
to speed up my Quake'“ II! Arena framerates. Not only does RADEON™ have
awesome high-quality performance but it supports more advanced 3D games
and upcoming DirectX™ 8.0 features than any other graphics board. The DVD
playback feature will come in handy when I need to take a break from gaming.
And, I have to admit the video capture and TV-output option on RADEON™ DDR
makes it a must-have. But, just remember, the only opinion of RADEON™ that
matters is mine and I have only one thing to say to you ATI

HAROWARE

Under the Hood

BY DAVE SALVATOR

How Much 3D Is EnoughP

We've come a long way, baby. But we have much farther to go.

L ast month I tested five of the latest 3D
cards, and as I plowed through all the
performance tests, I got to thinking, will
we ever reach a point where we have enough

3D? The new GeForce 2 cards can run QUAKE III
at 1024x768x32 at over 90 frames per second.

How much more performance do we really need?

3D chipsets have been on a blistering growth
curve, aided by rapid advances in chip manufac-
turing. To get an idea as to just how far
we’ve come, consider this; At 640x480 run-
ning at 60 frames per second, a GeForce 2
chip can process more triangles in a 3D
environment than there are pixels on the
screen to display them. And it won't be
long before 3D chips can achieve this same
feat at 1024x768. What happens when
we’ve got more triangles on the screen than
pixels? 3D programming shaman Jolin
Carmack has noted that at this point, you need to
consider another programming model. To that
end, there are other 3D primitives (the basic geo-
metric building block for creating a 3D model)
waiting in the wings, like curved primitives called
NURBS. The bottom line is, 3D chips' astounding
growth spurt is far from over, and you don’t have
to look any further than X-Box's specs to see
where things are headed. Its stated texture filt-
rate is anticipated to be three times that of
GeForce 2.

So What Does Enough 3D Look Like?

Well, the initial answer is easy enough: 3D
graphics should look like the real world— absolute
photo-realism, that is. So. maybe the easier way to
understand the answer is to do a little math:

Photo-realism - Where We Are Now = What 3D
Technology Still Needs to Do

Included in the answer to this equation are
things like full radiosity lighting (calculated rays
of light) with an unlimited number of lights and
shadows. Also in this mix would be particle sys-
tems that could interact with these lights, like
dirt being kicked up by a passing vehicle that
would interact with lights and shadows. Very
realistic facial rendering and animation — particu-
larly when avatars are speaking — is another
worthwhile goal. We need more highly-detailed
models, and frankly, more models acting
onscreen during gameplay. Think about it: In the
3D games you've played recently, how many

moving characters are on the screen at any given
time? Answer: a lot fewer than there ought to
be. Imagine you’re on the run from government
security goons, and want to try and disappear
into the canvas of a crowded marketplace filled
with thousands of people, or you're playing in a
real-time strategy game where you’ve got sever-
al thousand troops descending on your strong-
hold. Think of SHOGUN cranked up several orders

of magnitude. The list of needed improvements
goes on and on.

Both 3dfx and nVidia have some ideas on how
to begin tackling some of these challenges. Sdfx's
full-scene anti-aliasing (FSAA) will help clean up
some of the graphic distortion that rendering inac-
curacies produce. And nVidia’s accelerated trans-
form-and-lighting (T&L) will put more triangles on
the screen to create these more detailed worlds,
while simultaneously relieving the CPU of these
processing-intensive tasks. Unfortunately, these
two companies have managed to simultaneously
agree and throw mud at each other: 3dfx is work-
ing on accelerated T&L (so are ATI and Matrox),
and nVidia is working on improving their FSAA
support in Direct3D.

Keep on Keepin' On

Of course, many more characters onscreen with
individual behaviors means you’ll need a bigger
CPU to keep the whole circus flying. So, in addi-
tion to more 3D horsepower, CPU horsepower will
have to continue scaling as well. And yet another
reason that performance will continue to grow is
economics — 3D chip and CPU makers have to
generate demand for their latest wares, and
there's no better poster child for more perfor-
mance than gaming.

So, short story long, there’s no real end in sight
to the ongoing upgrade rumba we dance year
after year. But take heart, because generation by
generation, we’r e get ting closer to gaming’s
Promised Land. 23117

Until games look like real life,
the frenzied pace of graphic accel-
eration will continue unabated. (T

SEPTEMBER 200D •

EOMPUTER CUMING WORLD

!tSiiE3 «st!

To get the Maximum performance out of
a multi-user game, get off the Internet
and get on a D-Link lO/lOOMb Fast Ethernet Network. Up to 200 times
faster than the Internet, and 10 times faster than other legacy
networks. Easy to set up and install, a D-Link 10/100 Network In A Box
comes with everything you need to build a Windows 95/98 Network.

D'Link

www.dlink.com

GAMIMC

EDITORS'

CHOICE

•SJlMsi ★★★★*

■|?H = H

Prices and Specifications are subject to change without notice. D-Link is a registered trademark and DFE-906 is a trademark of
D-Link Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are properQi of their respective owners. ©Copyright 1999 D-Link Systems Inc. All rights reserved.

HARDWARE

+Tech Medics

Wttiai

Wounded on the technological front? Our medics may be able to patch you up and get you back into the action. Send your
gaming-related technical questions to cgw_hardware@zd.com.

Get on the
RAMBUS

I want to upgrade my PC to use
RAMBUS. I plan to buy an ASUS
motherboard (P3C-E). I have heard
that the RAMBUS runs at the
speed of the processor. So, if I buy
an 800MHz RIMM and I currently
have a SOOMHz Pentium III, will
the RAMBUS even work? I have
only seen RAMBUS chips at 600,
700, and SOOMHz speeds. Or will
the RAMBUS run at SOOMHz
speed? Does this speed matter a
lot depending on your processor?
How would you recommend that I
upgrade?

Yeati, all of the different parts of PCs moving
at different clock speeds sometimes makes my
brain hurt, too. But to answer your question,
on the ASUS P3C-E motherboard, you should
be able to use any of these speed grades of
RAMBUS. The differences have to do with
these memories' maximum clock rate, with
higher-clocked parts being more expensive.
GOOIVIHz RAMBUS has a maximum data rate of
1.2GB/seG; 7Q0MHZ goes to f.AGB/sec;
800MHz goes to 1.6GB/sec. The speed of this
memory doesn't have anything to do with your
CPU speed. So. you could run your Pentium-Ill
with RAMBUS on any of these three speed
variants. As for which speed grade to buy,
the safe advice is to err on the side of horse-
power, and go with SOOMHz. But from
CPU/chipset testing, I've found that RAMBUS
can make a differenoe in some very high-reso-
lution test cases; but if you opted for GQOMHz
RAMBUS, it probably would barely show up in

benchmarking, and would save you a
few bucks.

Mother Quest

I love computers just as much as
the next guy. I am a timid over-
clocker (Pentium-II 333 running at
360!) who would like to continue
to upgrade his currently lacking
rig beyond his current GeForce
SDR, pansy over-clocked proces-
sor, and 64MB of RAM. Of course,
being a computer gamer and
VERY lazy I don't want to go look-
ing for a new motherboard, but I
have no idea what the fastest chip
1 can plop down on this AL440LX
is. I read that a 400 Celeron might
work, but if I can go faster
(mmmm, Celeron II + Slotket),
then I would really like to.

I have no idea as to what the
fastest chip I can put on here is,
considering that Micron either did
not include the motherboard
manual or I lost it in the piles of
invoices they sent when I got this
computer 2 + years ago. Am I stuck
with this pathetic 5 multiplier or
what? And what’s that burning?

According to Intel's spec sheet (available on
the Web at support.intel.com/support/mother-
boards/desktop/al440lx/spec.htm), you've got
the fastest Pentium-II CPU the AL440LX will
support. Slot 1 Celeron 400MHz chips seemed
hard to come by in my initial search, but
433MHz parts were available for just under

$100. The problem is this; Your motherboard's
highest supported multiplier is 5, so even a
shiny new 433MHz Celeron would still run at
333MHz (GGMHz system bus x 5). So the
only thing you'd be gaining is an onboard
128K6 level-2 cache, but more than likely,
you wouldn't see much of a performance
improvement. Looks like a motherboard swap
is in your future. But buck up-motherboards
aren't nearly as hard to install as they used to
be, and if you're motivationally-challenged,
your local computer retailer will probably do
the swap for you tor a small fee, if you buy
the motherboard from them.

Pedal-Paddle

I'm looking for a force-feedback
racing wheel with paddles rather
than pedals, as I am confined to
a wheelchair and can't use my
legs. I currently use a
Thnistmaster wheel with paddles
for braking and accelerating,
but it has no force-feedback.

I do use a Microsoft force-feed-
back joystick for flying and that
works fine.

There are several fine choices here, and they
include wheels from Microsoft, Logitech,
and Guillemot. Of the three. Guillemot's
Ferrari wheel is probably the standout,
given that its force-feedback technology
is the newest. It does come with pedals,
but also has programmable wheel-paddles
that you can map to acoelerator/brake,
then map shifter controls to front buttons.
The Guillemot Ferrari wheel sells for
around $130.

TECH77P Drivers Wanted

I f you’re looking for one-stop surfing to get the latest graphics card drivers, check out www.reactor-
critical.com. This site gathers the latest drivers from nearly all the major 3D-card manufacturers
and puts them in one convenient spot.

SEPTEMBER 2S00 • cgw.Qamespol.c

COMPUTER GRHIII6 nORlD

With Other-
Sound Cards You
Hear Him Empty

If Monster Sound MX 400 j
You Hear Him
Empty His Bladder. ^

SB's Diamond i ■

Monster Sound

MX400 will rock your PC audio world. Based on ground- _ ^ „
breaking technology from ESS and Sensaura, the Monster ' «■ fE^B|
Sound MX400 adds a whole new twist to your gaming
experience with scorching 3D positional audio, so now you hear sounds
on a whole new axis — above and below you. And with true
quad output and Dolby Digital surround sound f you create the ultimate
PC home theater. Pius you can play, download, store and
manage the hottest digital audio formal on the internet or copy tracks
h-om your CD collection to build your own high quality MP3 files!
SO UP YOUR AUDIO WITH MONSTER SOUND MX400— truly in a class by itself!

Semnihot of SlMte Zuo eeurtety b! At

ffulrei Delby Olgllt

www.s3.com

AUDIO

YOUR TWO BEST RECIPES FOR BUILOING THE ULTIMATE GAMING MACHINE

Killer Rigs

^Monitor

I Mitsubishi DiamondPro 2040u

j 0{ft|que^.Q95

[H Power Rig

1 Componeiii Manulablurer Price Tlie Skinny |

VY MiniciiUe case

Yeoiiii YaiKi

S2I3

Lots of coolmii

Motherboard

Asus P3C-E

$180

AGP 4X. Intel 620. RAMBUS

CPU

Intel Pentium-Ill 933

$800

OK. not a Ginahertz-but at least voii can buy it

Memory

12aMB of PC800 RDRAM

$450

RAMBUS, babv!

Disk Controller

Adaolec 29160

S1B5

Sliohllv faster, hill also PCI 64 support

Primarv Graphics

Hercules 3D Prophet II

$300

DDR SDRAM and T&L support

3.5" Floppy Drive

Teac

$20

You still have to have one

Hard Drive

$880

Now at 36GB

Backup

Creative DVD-RAM drive

$270

5.2 pins of backup

CD-RDM/DVD

Pioneer Bx SCSI DVD-3D3S

$135

New Pioneer Slot-Drive DVD

Monilor

Mitsubishi DiamondPro 204Gii

$1,100

PerfecUv flat: nood USB support

Primarv Audio

Sound Blaster Live Platinum

$160

For four-sneaker DirectSoiind. A3D, and EAX

$175

Loud, clean, uncolored, and fabulous

Modem

3Com SDSL modem

S40D

DSL at last

Nelwoikino

3COM Etlierlink 10/100 PCI

$40

Reach out and fraii someane

Nelworkinn Hub

fJetiiearOSlOa

$95

Mullliilaver & DSL modem suonort

Power Supply

PC Power and Coolinn Tiiibocooi 300

$99

More power, Scotlv!

Microsoft fJalural Keyboard Pro

$59

Natural in. Newtoiioh out

Moiise/Pointinn Device

Microsoft Inlelllmouse Explorer

$00

No balls!

|USB Hub

Logitech WingMan 7'Port

$79

Get them USB ports upstairs

ihial w^ barne uotSirollere : $5,700 1

Flight Jovstick

CK FIB Combatstick USB

$65

It lust feels riuht

Rudder Pedals

CH Pro Pedals USB

$100

Nearly oarlect foot placement

Drivino Controls

ECCI CDS 4000

$1,250

For the serious sim driver

Gamepad

Interact Hammerhead FX

$40

DualShock-likc force-feedback controller

Gravis Gamepad USB

Total $7,155

The Fine Print: All recommendations based on actual evaluations and lasting. Prices listed are average low quotes from Web price search
engines like www.compulerahopper.coni or www.pricewalch.com. Lists compiled by Dave Salvator.

■ Lean Machine

1 Component

Manufacturer

Motherboard

Gigabyte 71X

CPU

Athlon 700 w/coolinq Ian

Memory

128MB PC133 SDRAM

Disk Controller

Built-in UDMA/33

Primarv Graphics

Hercules 30 Pronhet

Floppy Drive

Teac

Hard Drive

Maxtor Diamombnax 6800

Phis 17.4GD drive

CD-RDM/DVD

Pioneer DVD-114

Moniler

Onliouest 095

Primarv Audio

Sound Blaster Value

Sneakers

Boston Acoustics BA-635

Modem

Actiontec PCI Call-Waiting Modem

Case

Elan Vital T10-AB

Power SuddIv

Amec 300W

Keyboard

Microsoft Internet Kevboard

Moiise/Pointine Device

LGailech USB Wheel Mouse

Jovstick

Logitech Wingman Extreme Digital

Gamepad

Gravis Gamepad USB

KILLER RIGS

Want a full-bore gaming beast without having to build
it? We’ve got you covered. These two systems tested

ever having to charge up the electric screwdriver.

Power Rig

Alienware's Area 51 Aurora took no prisoners in our recent
testing, and its latest AMO Athlon-based rig pushes the
CPU speed up to 1GHz. The Aurora Is also packing 256MB
of PC133 SDRAM for system memory, along with a
GeForce 2 GTS-based 3D card with 32M6 of DDR SDRAM,
Klipsch’s testicular four-channel ProMedia V.2-A00 speak-
ers, and, it still comes in black.

Alienware’s Area 51

> $4,6B0 as configured ■ (8Q0) 494-3382 • wvAv.alienwarexom

LeanMaciiine

In addition to its high-end rigs, Dell also puts together very solid bang-for-the-
buck-lype systems as well. Thanks in large part to its high-volume buying
•' power, Dell’s Dimension XPS T comes in at just under Si, 300 and includes a
! TODUH! Pentium-Ill, 1!IMB ol RDRAM, a 32MB DDR EaForce 30 card, 17-Inch

■ $1,899 as configured ■www.dell.com

DefI Dimenston XPS T

Lean Machine: How Low Can We Go?

It’s just amazing how much PC you can put together for under two grand these days. And with that in mind, we’ve decided to crank the price limbo bar on
the Lean Machine down to $1,500. To do this, we went with a 700MHz Athlon CPU, and a GeForce SDRAM 3D card. This is a downgrade from the 900MHz
Athlon/GeFcrce DDR card we had in there last month, but these two changes let us bump the price down to under $1,500. Depending on your own budget,
and how much CPU and 3D card prices have dropped by the time you read this, you may well be able to nudge up your CPU to an 800MHz, and possibly
consider switching back to a DDR GeForce card. In any event, the Lean Machine we've built for you here, despite a little component trimming, Is still a very
solid box that will let you get your game on.

Price The Skinny |

S11D

Solid, stable Athlon motherboard

$180

The qiqahertz cometh. Feel the love

$100

128MB. snuaezed in

It's in there

$130

Solid GeForce SDRAM card

$20

Still (lotto have it

$130

Fast and dieaa

$140

Slot-drive DVD

$300

Solid 19” monitor at a budoet once

$45

R.I.P. Aureal

$70

Went back to mv favorites

$70

Solid oerformance. oood orice

$75

Back to the old familiar

$49

Drunk with oower

$24

Cheao: nice add-on buttons

$30

Better than the "naminn" mouse

$39

Very solid 3D iovstick with USB

$30

Solid, basic gamepad

Total $1 ,542 ■

C hoosing the right 3D card
depends on your CPU and
your motherboard, so we have
two recommendations for you:

For a Pentium 233MHz or slower,
or a PCI motherboard (no AGP), or
a motherboard-down AGP graphics
chip with no AGP slot, get Sdfx’s
Voodoo3 3000 PCI board.

At around $120, the V3 3000
delivers good price/performance,
and will do a good job with current
games. And, when you swap in a
new motherboard/CPU, you can
migrate the Voodoo3 board to the
new setup and use it there until
you decide to get an AGP-based
30 card.

For motherboards with AGP, we
recommend Hercules' 30 Prophet
II, based on nVidia’s GeForce 2 GTS
chipset, which took top honors in
our latest round of 30 testing. This
board has 32MB of DDR SDRAM,

^ W HICH

UDCSiSHe)

.SHOULD I BUY?.

and if your monitor can tolerate it,
try booting your favorite game up
at 1600x1200; you’ll be surprised
how well things keep moving. At
$310, this board doesn’t come
cheap. If money is an object, its
now-one-generation-back prede-
cessor, the GeForce-based 30
Prophet, is $225 at press time, it
should be below $200 by the time
you’re reading this.

133

HP CD-Writer Plus 93101

Reviews

THW

MICROSOFT
INTELLIMOOSE OPTICAL

Requirements: Windows 9x, Windows 2000, Mac.
Price: S5B

Manufacturer: Microsoft
Contact: www.microsafLcQin/hardwarB

HP CO-WRITER PLOS
03101

Requirements: Wndows 9X, a tree ElOE channel.
Price: $30)

Manufacturer: Hewlett Packard
Contact: www.hp.com

LOGITECH WINGMAN
OSB HUB

Requirements: Windows Ox, Windows 2000, Mac.
Price: $00

Manufacturer: Logitech
Contact: www.logitech.com

T he IntelliMouse Optical closely
resembles its big brother, the
IntelliMouse Explorer, complete
with side buttons and the cool glowing
tail. Like the original, there’s also no mouse
ball, with the mouse tracking performed by
light emitted from the base of the mouse and
reflected off the mousing surface. Gone, how-
ever, is the slippery surface. It's also a tad
smaller and symmetrical in shape (great for
lefties), with
duplicate
buttons on both
sides.

In most cases,

this is a superbly comfortable mouse. The
response in most Windows apps, as well as
the majority of games, is smooth and precise.

It felt so good, it was almost love at first
mouse. Turn-based and real-time strategy
games seemed much less of a burden on my
mousing hand. But a weakness revealed itself
when playing an extended session of UNREAL
TOURNAMENT. I discovered that very fast
mouse flicks - as when doing a jump-turn -
will cause the action to stutter. It's usually very
brief, but long enough to get you fragged.
Occasionally, the frame will freeze even
longer. In the end, the IntelliMouse Optical -
and all the ball-free rodents from Microsoft -
have a high coolness factor, but if you’re
heavily info first-person shooters, you may
want to steer dear. -Loyd Case

O nly a few short years ago, CD-writers
were the toys of elitist bastards with
way too much money to waste.

Thanks to the wonders of mass production, every-
one and their brother can now cook up freshly-
baked shiny plastic discs daily. HP spearheaded
the CD-RW movement a few years back, and with
the 931 01, they’ve kept their standards high,
despite the current flood of sub-par CD-R drives.

The drive is simple to install, unless you're squea-
mish about opening
your case. Software
installation is equally
simple: The HP soft-
ware installer takes

care of everything. Adaptec's EasyCD Creator and
DirectCD are the included authoring-software pack-
ages, and they generally get the job done. There's
also a free CD labeler from Neato, and an audio-
editing program to help you jazz up your mixes.

But how does it write? Well, the 1 0X writing is
both a blessing and a curse. If you’re writing from
your hard drive, your CD's will be finished in record
time; around five minutes for a full write. But most
CD-R media isn't 10X compliant, so you'll have to
crank down the speed to be safe. We had few
problems with non-lOX media, since it can't keep
pace. Also, writing at 1 0X is generally too fast for a
normal CD-ROM drive, so if you want to copy a
CD, you’ll have to slam on the brakes.

But in general, this is an excellent drive that
stands out for its ease of installation and snappy
presentation. -Alex Handy

W e’ve waxed on (and waxed off)
about how cool USB con-
trollers are, and how their plug-
and-play functionality make swapping
game controllers a snap. But there's a
snag - those damn USB ports are still on the
backs of our PCs. So, the logical solution?

Get the ports onto the desktop. Logitech’s
new seven-port WingMan USB Hub is the
hardware for the job, with a few caveats.

A USB hub is
a wonder of sim-

plicity: Plug it
into a free USB

port and watch Windows detect it (there’s no
driver to fulz with because it’s built into
Wndows). But with Logitech's offering,
there’s a catch - you’ll need to use the power
supply, otherwise this hub won't come up.
Many hubs let you run either powered or
unpowered, and Logitech’s hub claims to do
this as well. But without its included power
supply, this hub wouldn't work.

The other catch is that all the ports are
located on the sides of the hub, meaning that
it won't fit into tight spaces very well. If you’re
looking for a good basic four-port, unpowered
hub, Saitek's got one. But if you've got the
space and the power, Logitech's WingMan
Hub will put a whole mess o’ USB love onto
your desktop. -Dave Salvator

it’s computer
deja vu.

but the price hasn’t
been seen before.

Ask about Deir' computers,
like this Dimension' desktop,
featuring Intel- Pentium' III
processors.

Pentium®///

Dell Factory Outlet computers may seem vaguely familiar.
That's because they're refurbished Dell systems. When
Dell desktops, notebooks, workstations and servers are
returned, we rebuild them to original factory specs. We
test our systems for top performance. Then retest them.
(Talk about deja vu.) We even guarantee our computers
with Dell's same-as-new limited warranty! Plus, most of
our systems come with Intel® Pentium* III processors. And
they're ail given brand-new, discounted prices. You can
browse online anytime. And when you're ready to order,
just call our reps. The Dell Factory Outlet. Where the
prices are anything but deja vu all over again.

find the system that's right for you. speak with our helpful reps:
mon-fri yam-Spm CDT • sat 10am-6pm CDT • keycode 29CGW

D^L factory outlet

shop online, buy on tne phone. 888.452.3109 WWW.dell.COm/OUtler IK^-LOCOM

All sv'stG/iis retutbished and for U.S, only. Ooll Computer Corporation cannut be bald rosponsible tor errors in typography or photography. 'For a compleie copy of our guatanieos or limited warranties, write Dell Computer
Corporation. Attn Watraiilies. One Dell Way. Bo* 8621, Round flock, TX 78682. Dell, the Dell logo am) Dimension are trademarks of Doll Computer Corporation Intel, the Intel Inside logo, and Pentium are registered
trademarks of Intel Corporation (S2000 Dell Computer Corporation. All rights reserved SUPPLIES ARE LIMITED AND CHANGE DAILy.

Cheats, Hacks, & Hints

COUNTER STRIKE

Y ou guys always have great tips about retail software, but not much
about mods. Since COUNTER-STRIKE (CS) is one of the most
popular mods out there, I’d share a few tips I’ve learned for it. One
of the most important things I've found is to fire in bursts. Too often, I’ve
seen people empty a clip in two seconds, only to have most of their
shots go off wildly. Short bursts are most effective, and can be achieved
by tapping the mouse button. Ideally, you want about two to three rounds
a burst. Another important thing is to move stealthily. When running, your
footsteps can be heard and will give away your position. Walk along the
shadows, and your enemy won't know where you are until you kill them.
Also, when walking you have less of a chance of running into an enemy
and then running past him, exposing your back. Most everyone who plays
CS knows that by crouching you can achieve stealth, but almost no one
knows that by crouching before using ladders, the sound of your climbing
is muffled. One last tip is that if you come across a crate that you can't
normally jump, get a teammate to crouch and use them as a smaller crate
to get on top of the bigger one. This tactic can be used to surprise ene-
mies who wouldn’t expect anyone to be up there. Good luck with these
tips. -Steven Wagner

For a smattering of
tips for a popular
mod, we're giving
Steve a copy of
MORTYR,
CODENAME:
EAGLE, and a
PLANET OF THE
APES i-shirt. Enjoy!

S ky Knights and Lizard Riders are wasting
one of their clan's strengths if they're
banking to turn all the way around - press
the Insert key to do an Immelman that changes
direction faster than any other clan. The
Hammercraft should use freelook to take advan-
tage of their gun turrets while maneuvering to
keep enemies out of their overhead blind spot.
And the Magion don’t have to rely on ammo gath-
ering so much if they learn to use effective com-
bos like the Stir n' Freeze, a.k.a. “Dairy Queen
combo”: Hit your target with Disorient, and then
an Iceball. After spinning and falling to the
ground encased in ice, he’ll never be able to
draw a bead on you to counterattack.

MDK2

T hree heroes, three brief tips. For Kurt, remember
that you can now strafe from side-to'-slde while in
Sniper View. Since headshots will down most ene-
mies, it’s now plausible to switch to sniper for a
moment to off someone. Grab yourself a Sniper Shield,
and you’ll be practically invincible when picking people
off from a distance.

For Max, keep in mind that when using the Jet-pack,
your current momentum is preserved. So, Instead of
burning your precious fuel, just Jump forward, let your
momentum carry you, and use the fuel In spurts to
keep you afloat.

Finally, Doc Hawkins cannot mantle. At all. He’ll
grab, but he can’t pull himself up. He can only make
jumps to lower levels, and very close jumps. If you’re
not landing onto your destination, chances are there’s
a place to use the ladder, an alternate route, or some-
thing you can just fire atomic toast at.

COMPUIIR BRUIIB MIBID

W hen it comes to using

Disciplines, use the combo
favored by the Nihilistic Team:
Celerity, Potence, and Feral Claws. You'll
move fast, be stronger, and deal out
aggravated damage (the hardest type of
damage to guard against). These
Disciplines are
pretty much

accessible to
every character,
and if you power
each of these
with the maximum

CHECK OUT THE

VAMPIRE; THE

MASQUERADE-

REDEMPTION

of five dots, you can literally tear through
most of your enemies.

Also, have at least one character fully
develop the Presence Disciplines. A pow-
erful Awe is a great way to incapacitate a
single foe, and a fully developed Majesty
will cause just about everything around
you to stand still and take the punish-
ment, without repercussions.

A ny old cannoneer worth his breechloader will tell you that
you don’t have to see the enemy to make his life hell.
Suppressing fire is a key tactic in GROUND CONTROL for
slowing down your enemies' movements, and hopefully making a
dent in his forces at the same time. All units are capable of
doing it, but artillery pieces are especially effective. Simply hold
down Ctrl and left-click the area you wish to rain shells upon
(red cursor is In range, blue is out] and your units will comply.
Then, just move your main battie terradynes in to mop up.

Suppressing fire works best In

CHECK OUT THE *™

nrwMurmmm hot for forward observers.

REUIEIAf

CHECK OUT THE ,

review!

I n RTS 101, you ail learned that the first
-step in winning is to harvest resources i
faster than your opponents. Play EARTH ■'
21 50 accordingly. For the United Civilized /;
States^this means having a harvester on
i every s'quare of an ore field, and building
enough refineries to accommodate them i
all.. As the Eurasian Dynasty, build a cius- '
.ter of mines on the ore field; even if a mine
••’only touches a single square of the field, it i
will, still extract ore. But since the Lunar
Corporation isn't limited by a bottleneck
between the ore field and the refinery that
produces credit, this is where they'll
trounce the opposition every time. Pile up
your mines, and by the end of the game,
you're liable to have outproduced your
opponents by a factor of 5- to 1, |

GROUND CONTROL

cgw.gjmeipol.coai • SEPTEMBER 2000

C0UP8TEB SAUIH6 HABII

GAMING

Inside ^

Catching the Next Wave

What do designers think is going to push strategy forward?

T his month’s cover story examines
the games we think will set trends
in strategy gaming in the foresee-
able future. But what do game designers
themselves think? What do they see as
the next big thing in strategy games?

We ran an informal survey, and here's
what we found out:

Mark Skaggs, Westwood Studios (REP
ALERT 2): With every game taking us one
step closer to the "holodeck,” I think a
continuing trend in all games is a higher
degree of realism. On the RTS front, con-
tinued integration of 3D will happen in
ways that won't alienate less-sophisti-
cated users. I think we'll also see modi-
fied garaeplay to broaden the appeal of
RTS games

beyond core
gamers.

1.MDK2 Coupled

2. ALLEGIANCE l^ogether,

these two ele-
3. GROUND ments will be

a big win for
4. Zombie the strategy

genre as a
whole.

S. HIGH HEAT 2001 | Ed Del Castillo,

Liquid

Entertainment (BATTLE REALMS); Increased
depth of play. In fact, the genre is really
irrelevant— entertainment is about
exploring emotion. RTS's are about the
emotions experienced on the battlefield:

College at
www.icebox.com

heroism, fear of death, honor, and the
pain of loss. Strategy games need to use
whatever means to evoke those emo-
tions without genre distinctions.

Brian Reynolds, Big Huge Games (CIV II,
ALPHA CENTAURl, and Big Huge Games' big
secret first game); 1 think 3D graphics
technology is rapidly approaching the
stage where even strategy games (which
tend to have zillions of little units on the
screen at the same time) can take advan-
tage of it, and that's going to be a major
paradigm shift. New kinds of games will
be possible which weren't before.

Rob Pardo, Blizzard Entertainment
(WarCraft III); Currently we seem to be
in a transition phase. Many developers
have shied away from the traditional
RTS genre and are really trying to find
the next "big thing." The next big game
will be the strategy game that can use a
full 3D world and make it accessible to
the broad market of gamers.

Julian Gollup, Myttios Games (X-COM, MAGIC
& MAYHEM, DREAMLAND CHRONICLES; FREEDOM
RIDGE); I Still think that the biggest prob-
lem with many strategy games is inade-
quate AI. In the future, AIs will also
have the ability to learn and develop per-
sonalities. Imagine playing a game
where you simply cannot tell the differ-
ence between your human and non-
human opponents. Now, that would be
pretty scary.

Will Wrigiit, Maxis Entertainment (SlMClTY,
THE SIMS); I think as the graph-
ics arms race starts to hit

Enter the Dragoon

diminishing

returns, we'll see developers searching
for something cool to spend their excess
CPU horsepower on. I think that more
and more of this horsepower will start to
go into new forms of AI. This won’t just
mean more efficient routing and stuff
(which is good also) but rather more
believable computer opponents and
NPCs. Your computerized adversaries
(and allies) will start to demonstrate
emotional responses to your actions
(through their irrational tactics) and the
ability to learn from the tactics you use
against them.

What's most interesting about these
responses is how most of the design-
ers seemed to focus on nuts-and-bolts
issues like 3D graphics. As exciting as
great-looking games are, that's a thrill
usually lost after the first hour or so
of play.

But look a little deeper and you’ll see
a more subtle thought resonating
through most of their words: increased
realism— courtesy of 3D graphics— but,
more importantly, better opponents. Del
Castillo talks about games that stir your
emotions; Gollup imagines a human-like
AI that learns and develops a personali-
ty; Wright takes that idea a step further
when he imagines a computer opponent
that reacts emotionally to your playing
style. If smarter, more engaging games
are the Next Big Thing in strategy, the
future looks bright indeed.

N apoleonic wargamers must

be a glum lot, with three years
passing since the last major
19th-Century wargame, TalonSoft's
BAHLEGROUND: PRELUDE TO
WATERLOO. Their patience will pay
off this fall with the arrival of
Waterloo, based on the award-
winning Sid Meier's
GETTYSBURG/ANTIETAM engine.
Breakaway Games, which developed
ANTIETAM, has modified the engine to
incorporate higher-resolution artwork,

better animation, smoke, fires,
and explosions. The game will
accurately portray Napoleonic
warfare with unit formations,
authentic weapons (including
rockets), and cavalry charges.
Even the uniforms will be
precisely detailed, based on more
than 60 historical troop types.

It’s hard to please a grognard,
but this game should succeed
where Napoleon failed,

-Ken Brown

SEPTEMBER 2(100 • cgw.gjmespot.i

EOMPUTER BAMIIIB WORLD

P(ay Ovilaation II Cold’* online

Play Ago of Wonders'* Oi

Play Ago of Dnpiroa 11" online

Hundreds of games. Millions of people. No quarters required.

www.zdnet.com/gamespy

Rage Against the Machine

EA fails to rescue JANE’S ATTACK SQUADRON

I 've been cursing like a drunken
stevedore with a bad case of
Tourette’s Syndrome ever since I
got wind of the ill fate that befell
FLIGHT: COMBAT (aka ATTACK
SQUADRON), the long-anticipated
WWn Sim from Looking Glass
Studios. By now you’ve surely heard
about the demise of Looking Glass
Studios, and along with it, some of
the best gaming franchises ever cre-
ated. {You think I'm upset? You
should see my wife, over the
prospect of not playing any new
THIEF games.) Yes, Looking Glass must bear the blame for
putting themselves into such financial straights. But damn is
it frustrating to hear how a sim as promising as FLIGHT:
COMBAT was only a few months away from being finished
after 28 months of work when Electronic Arts cancelled their
plans to publish it as JANE’S ATTACK SQUADRON.

I realize the continuation of this sim would have been
under unusual and difficult circumstances. After all. a portion
of Looking Glass would have had to effectively remain
intact by retaining key personnel, securing offices and equip-
ment, providing benefits, etc. However, a source within the
development group informed me that these obstacles had all
been hurdled.

What’s even more damning is that EA didn’t spend the big
bucks normally associated with the production of a sim such
as ATTACK SQUADRON. They didn’t have to, because Looking
Glass took all the risk by “bonding” their sim ahead of time
with a separate company in order to ensure the game's
completion.

AU EA had to say was yes. When EA said no, they killed
whatever chance FLIGHT: COMBAT/JANE’S ATTACK
SQUADRON had to see the light of day. Team members
once willing to stick around for less pay
than what they could make elsewhere had
to move on (after all, they have families
to feed).

I have a hard time accepting how a
company that's worth S1.6 billion, as EA is
fond of describing itself, won't publish a
sim they could have practically gotten for
a steal.

Obviously, there’s more to this story,
most of it grist for the rumor mill. There are
tales of how Looking Glass undersold the
project to EA to begin with and hence set
themselves up for failure, and there are
accusations that EA had been looking to
get out of flight sims altogether. Perhaps
JAS missing its deadlines merely gave EA the excuse they

When not engaged In aerial maneuvers, Gordon Berg
works as a network administrator for a non-profit
social services organization.

1. ENEMY
ENGAGED:
COMMANCHE-
HOKUM

2. FLYING
HEROES

3. The sheer joy
that only COUNTER-
STRIKE can
bring. ..over the hell
of a 56K modem.

4. CIVILIZATION II
(I’m hooked all over

5. My new Saitek
driving wheel. Lord
help me, I might try
out some racing
sims.

were looking for.

According to EA's Jeff
Brown, "...our deci-
sion wasn't based on
a formula for measur-
ing profitability. It
was based on our
deep uncertainty that
the project could meet
any schedule given
the changes in senior
management and a
history of missing
deadlines.”

Fair enough. EA didn’t have faith in what
was left of the team to get the game done
and that’s why they said no. I'm very sym-
pathetic to how a company needs to make
sound business decisions, but it just kills me
to hear how this game had a chance and
was instead left to die so close to comple-
tion. If the big companies like EA don’t take
the risk on ground-breaking games, games
that push the limit to redefine and maybe even re-ignite
genres, then who wUl? It certainly won’t be the independent
developers like Looking Glass.

WHOPPER OF A CHOPPER SIM

Now This Is How
It’s Done

R azorworks' ENEMY ENGAGED: COMMANCHE-HOKUM
should be available in the U.S. by the time you read this.

A follow up to their
prior APACHE-HAVOC
release, EECH has actu-
ally been available in
Europe for a few
months now. Although
EECH can stand on its
own merits, it can also
incorporate the cam-
paigns found in
APACHE-HAVOC if you
have it installed on your
hard drive, effectively
increasing the total
number of helicopters
and campaigns you can

fly (and you should be able to pick up AH real cheap now).
With improved graphics and AI, this sim will definitely
cleanse your palette from the crap that was GUNSHIP! and KA-
52, and it might even challenge the pedestal you've placed
under the LONGBOW series. Kdiv

COMPUTER GAMlilO WDRIO

"Entering the pits.

'Cover me.

comrf'’

"Launch artiiiery strike.

dear my six.

Believe it

Same Commander is for real. No hype. No gimmicks. Wish you could tell your wingman to attack your target

"Excellent voice recognition"

- CNET Gamecenter

without having to remember the keystrokes? Want to be in command and bark out orders to your troops? Ever "Gsm© Cornrnand6r TOCkS"
dream of verbally directing your crew on the bridge of your starship? Stop dreaming! . woHd

Take command

Use any word or phrase to trigger keystrokes. With no voice training. And you can program up to 256
keystrokes for each command to carry out a series of actions or navigate even the deepest of nested menu
sptions. Since Game Commander sends keystrokes as if you had typed them, it will work with any simulation,
game, or application that accepts keystrokes.

The MX Edition of Game Commander can run simultaneously \with voice chat software such as TeamSound^",
Roger Wilco'"", BattleCom'"^ and the like. Use voice commands and your favorite voice chat. It's the best of
both worlds.

Experience it

With a fuli-duplex sound card and a microphone (preferrably a noise canceling mic), you can try Game
Commander and experience the improved convenience, realism, and immersion it brings to your favorite
simulations and games. Download the free trial today at www.gamecommander.com/trial/

Enter discount code CGky-AJCwhen you order online and get $10 off Game Commander or
Game Commander MX until September 30, 2000.

FREE TRIAL DOWNLOAD
GameCommander.com

(408) 467-0457

gcsales^igamecommander.com

"A must have"

- ZDNET GameSpot

"Amazing to use"

- Computer Gaming World

"Revolutionary"

- CombatSim.com

"A real winner"

- nightsim.com

"Superb recognition"

- GameVisions.com

Gjme Commander, ihe Garre Correunder I 090 , and Micdmaker are lradem»ts of Mndmaler, Inc. Copyright .c' 2000 flJI RighB Reserved Al other traderrerks are the property of ther respective owners.

..V— VvZ

Inside/i

The Little Guys Strike Back

Inside the skulls that hatched the COUNTER-STRIKE
mod far HALF-LIFE

T he COUNTER-STRIKE mod for HALF-
LIFE is. without question, the slick-
est user-made mod out there, and is
probably the reason why HALF-LIFE is still
being played online. It’s so slick, in fact,
that HALF-LIFE developers Valve want to
spotlight and bundle the mod in an upcom-
ing Half-Life update. This month, I had a
chat with the two main
guys behind the HALF-
LIFE mod COUNTER-
STRIKE, “Gooseman"
and “Cliffe," to learn a
little more about this
good ol’ rags to riches
tale.

Counter Proposal

Q: How did this hap-
pen in the first place?

Did Gabe Newell just
e-mail you one day, or
what?

A: (Gooseman) We
developed a relationship
early in CS’s development. As it became
more popular, they approached us about
buying the rights to CS. I honestly can’t
remember what they said; I believe it
went something like, "Gabe Newell has
invited you to his 200-acte mansion to dis-
cuss the possibility of buying the rights to
your soul". ..just kidding.

(Cliffe) We'd been working with Valve
pretty closely for a while. They’ve given
incredible support
to the mod commu-
nity. The interest
they took in CS was
gradual, and we
started talking with
Art Min at Valve
about some sort of
partnership.

Q: What are the
concrete effects of
this partnership
(besides bundling
CS with HL}?

A: (Gooseman) We
still maintain full
creative control over

with new technology that Valve develops
(such as network code).

(Cliffe) CS being in the official HALF-LIFE
updates is the only plan, currently. But we
may work with Valve to do something else
(perhaps a sequel for their next-generation
engine, etc.). Nothing’s been decided yet.

Q: CS was a cult project and is now offi-

1. Gladiator (still
my favorite
movie this year)

3. MDK2

4. Katsuhiro
Otomo’s Akira
(the actual manga,
not the hacked-
together anime)

5. Waiting for cursed
PacBell to send me
my DSL installation
kit.

from the ground up— without having
someone look over your shoulder — is price-
less. We'll try to keep it this way for as
long as we can.

(Cliffe) I’d have to say that the benefits
of being independent are great. The whole
team is pretty independent and everyone
has a strong personality, so there aren’t
many limits to what can be done.

Q; Finally: What were your biggest
influences, both within and without gam-
ing (movies, books, etc.) in creating CS?

A: (Gooseman) I became interested in
the topic of terrorism while reading about
it online. I visited various sites that cover
terrorism, and it got me thinking about
how neat it'd be if there was a game that
would let me be a counter-terrorist. I want-
ed to create a balance between realism
and action.

CS; development will continue as it has in
the past year. The biggest change will be
the possibility of working more closely

daily backed by a
company— did you
ever imagine this
happening?

A: (Gooseman) Yes, of course, it was all
part of the master plan. We’re actually
kind of surprised it took this long...heh
heh. Actually, the truth is, no one in the CS
camp really expected it to be this popular.
We’re happy it is, though, that’s for sure,

(Cliffe) I can remember when we first
opened the site in May of 1999: We'd look
at our stats and see that fifty people had
visited, and that blew us away. It was a
very slow process and it still amazes us to
this day that it's gotten this popular.
Working closely with Valve is pretty surre-
al in that we both idolized these guys just
a year ago.

Q: CS, at this point, is a finely crafted
piece of work. Are you guys going to use
this as a higlrlight on a resume, and try to
join up with a game company at some
point, or you gonna pretty much stay inde-
pendant/freelance?

A: (Gooseman) We totally enjoy doing
CS as a freelance/independent project. It's
not as lucrative as working in a company,
but having the freedom to design a game

capture the look of some of these games,
yet at the same time, I wanted to portray
counter-terrorism as realistically as possi-
ble. This involved doing research on many
of the more famous counter-terrorism
units, such as the German GSG-9, French
GIGN, UK SAS, etc. Another thing I really
enjoy about Ist-person shooters is the fact
that you can see your gun. It just makes
the experience that much more immersive
for me, so I went about trying to make the
guns as realistic as possible— trying not to
skimp on any details.

(Cliffe) Strange as it may sound, I
think perhaps the main influence was
the FPS genre in general, and how it
was becoming so sci-fi oriented. A game
where you put away your hyperblaster
and picked up some real weaponry was
a breath of fresh air, and I think a lot of
people agreed. Kd'.v

Tiianks to both Gooseman and Cliffe for
taking time out of tuning COUNTER-STRIKE
6.5 to answer our questions.

SEPTEMBER 20DD «

CDMPIIltH BRMIHB IWDRIB

GAMING!

«v9y« to csrtond Uto

'EACBOF

One year -r 12 issues
$24.97 with 12 monthly CD-ROM s

+ 501 cheats

inside H U

The Joy of Text

As the graphic adventure dies, ye aide text adventure
may be making a comeback

THUMB'S UP A java version ol the classic Hilchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy text adventure awaits you at DouylasAdams.com.

M y introduction to computer
gaming came in the form of
ADVENTURELAND on my
friend's cutting edge Commodore ’VIC-
20, Sitting there night after night, navi-
gating a text-based world with a two-
word parser while squinting at an out-
of-focus TV is likely what caused the
mole-like vision I live with today, but
I’ve never regretted those formative
marathon gaming sessions. It wasn’t long before I was exploring all
the now-classic Infocom games on my very own Commodore 64.

The technology bug
has bitten me hard since
those salad days, but
every year or so I get an
urge to revisit the time
when my brain served as
a 3D graphics accelerator,
and I check the Web for
the latest creations from
the interactive fiction
community. This is one of
the few areas of gaming
where a talented individ-
ual with a story to tell
can still create one of the
top games in the genre;
the Interactive Fiction
Competition proves it to
me each year.

The tools used to
create and play these
games have improved
massively since Infocom's
glory days. There are
two major programming
languages in use today.
Inform and TADS, They
both have specific
strengths and weakness-
es, and you’ll need an
interpreter to play
the games created
with them.

My current favorite
interpreters are WinFrotz
for Inform games and
HTML-TADS for TADS
games. HTML-TADS is by
far the cooler of the two,
letting users play games
tlirough a browser inter-
face that allows for the

easy addition of graphics and sound
effects. As the name implies, it also
allows for all kinds of HTML tricks, and
authors are coming up with interesting
ways to use the technology all the time. The best thing about it is
that it still plays older TADS adventures, with a prettier interface
than I'm used to.

Once you have the free interpreters, you’ll want to grab some
games. Diving straight into the Interactive Fiction Archive, an enor-
mous ftp site, is not recommended. Instead, try one of the major
review sites, like the Society for the Promotion of Adventure Games
(SPAG), Bat's Guide to the Interactive Fiction Archive, or the XYZZY
News site.

For those of you who don't want to go to all that trouble, there
are many interactive fiction games you can play directly through
any Java-enabled Web browser. Douglas Adams' Web site has a
complete version of his infernally difficult HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO
THE GALAXY, and FreeArcade.com let me experience the Scott
Adams games like ADVENTURELAND all over again.

Despite all the good games and new user-friendly interfaces, IF is
not nearly as popular as it used to be. Now, after years of waning
interest, it seems that this form of gaming may be poised for a
comeback. Bedouin, Inc., a mobile communications company,
recently launched the interesting RedGrendel program that aims to
put commercial interactive fiction in the hands of mobile phone and
PDA users. Their thought is that mobile platforms, with their small
screens that are designed to display crisp text and little else, are
ideal for interactive fiction games. RedGrendel was established to
promote the development of these games by offering authors royal-
ties ranging from 10%-40% of net sales. Whether interactive fiction
can once again be commercially successful is a matter of serious
doubt, but judging from the quality of some of the games I've
played, I can only hope it works out.

Regardless of the RedGrendel’s success, the legions of Palm users
can play tons of interactive fiction games on the go by downloading
POot-Frotz or Pilot Zip to convert and interpret Inform games. This
software lets you access verb lists and provides all the directions in
which you can go at any given time, meaning gameplay consists
mainly of tapping instead of writing out words. You can learn more
about the process and download dozens of games at Leisa ReFalo’s
excellent Interactive Fiction site. Another terrific source for games
(complete with small reviews) is the PalmPilot Entertainment Zone
Interactive Games Area, which currently has nearly 100 interactive
fiction games in its archive,

( Interactive Fiction Sites

Bat’s Guide to the Interactive
Fiction Archive

baf.wurb.com/if

Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers' Guide
to the Galaxy site

www,douglasadams.com/creations/i

nfocomjava.htm!

FreeArcade.com's Scott Adams
page

www.javaarcade.com/Zplet.jav/Scot
tadams.html
The HTML-TADS site
www.tela.bc.ca/tela/html-tads
The Interactive Fiction Archive
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive or
http://www.ifarchive.org (the HTML
mirror site)

Leisa ReFaio's Interactive
Fiction site

www.geocities.com/Heartland/959

O/interactive.htm

PaimPitot Entertainment Zone
Interactive Games Area

www.fortunecity.com/underworld/rp

g/22/

Pilot-Frotz Download Page

geocities.com/SiliconValley/Way/23

67/down!oad.htm

RedGrendel Project

www.redgrendel.com

SPAG site

www.sparkynet.com/spag

The TADS Page

www.teia.bc.ca/tela/tads

WinFrotz home page

www.cris.com/--Twist/WinFfOtz

XYZZY News

www.xyzzynews.com

ZIP for the PalmPilot

WWW, palmglyph.com/zip.html

1. THIEF2fan
missions

2. MOTOCROSS
MADNESS 2

3. TONY HAWK’S
PRO SKATER for
the Dreamcast

4. WARIO LAND 3 on ,
the Game Boy Color I

5. The Perfect Storm I
by Sebastian lunger F

^^ Ppr7MBER 2000 ■ c;w. ganieiiiiil.com

COMPOTER 6IIMIN6 WORLD

When terrorists secured the compound, Alpha Team
mobilized on their favorite server.

Agent z instant-messaged his teammates

with a ballsy scheme to 90 through the window.

Twenty minutes of breaking glass and shattering
limbs ensued.

Afterward, they regrouped on tiie chat Channel.

"Next time, you guys be the terrorists!"

www.zdnet.e0m/game5py

INSIDE GAMING

inside

Bring It On, Online!

Madden 2001 sets the tone for online franchise play

I f EA Sports' plans for MADDEN 2001 are
any indicator, this could be a break-
through year for online PC sports
games. Whereas 3D-shootets have been
there for ages, the past few years have seen
few sports games— MADDEN and HIGH HEAT
are the only ones that come to mind— push
into the realm of Internet play. The underly-
nig reason was a combination of technical
and ideological shortcomings. To find and
engage a human opponent in a one-on-one
contest was awkward, and you traded off
latency and season play. To many sports
gamers, online play just didji’t seem worth
the effort.

But the future of sports games lies online,
despite the technological barriers. "Career
and season modes are fun, but they lack
sometliing playing against a computer oppo-
nent, " argues Mark Dickenson, Executive
Director at 3DO (HIGH HEAT 2001). Indeed.
Evidence of this becomes obvious just walk-
ing around the HIGH HEAT-obsessed
Computer Gaming World offices— the office
custom league is the primary culprit.

EA Sports plans on

1. DARK REIGN 2

3. DIABLO 2

4. Gig:

Americans Talk
About Their Jobs
at the Turn of
the Millennium by
John Bowe

aggressively pursu-
ing online season
play in MADDEN 2001
with improved net-
working code and,
more importantly, an
improved
Madden
lobby

and an innovative Franchise play mode.
Here, gamers will be able to engage in a
real-time draft and real-time free agent
signings over the course of several seasons.
"It will work like NHL 2000’s commissioner
mode, " explains Steve Chaing, Executive
Producer of MADDEN 2001. "Certain games
will have to be played by a certain date, so
you’ll have to make plans with your oppo-
nent to get online and play."

Of course, Chaing cautiously notes, "It's
tricky because you have to support the
high-end and the low-end gamers. We'O
probably have to patch the online version
of MADDEN a few times as we go. "

And that’s okay. The important part is
just getting there in the first place. From
here, it’s only a matter of time before we
see four- and five-player matches, career
modes that play out over multiple seasons,
and hype and hoopla commensurate with
real-life sporting events.

Mark Dickenson couldn't agree more
about how important league play is for
sports games like HIGH Heat 2001. "The
Internet is going to be one of the key fac-
tors in bringing baseball games out of the
hardcore and into the mainstream."

THE BOVS (AND GIRIS) OF SUIVIMER

5. MTV Music
Generator

High Heat 2001:

The CGW League

■ye

1 H

ear two of the CGW HIGH
HEAT League is half over, and
some familiar names sit atop the
standings. Robert Coffey’s
Yankees amassed a 17-game
winning streak before a major
upset at the hands of Jeff
Green's scrappy Oakland A’s.

Last year’s runner-up Chris
Lombardi rode the backs of Pedro
Martinez and John Smoltz to a gaudy
23-3 record. At press time, last year’s
champion George Jones was strug-
gling to regain last season's form. But
after a 4-2 split with the Yankees,
the league is a little afraid that
the vaunted Red Sox machine is
waking up. Leading the league for
MVP— the voluptuous horror that is
Brian S. Giles.

Flame of the Month

One man's angry response to a
highly contentious USENET news-
group thread about the Top 10 PC
football games of all time:

“You’re a complete idiot, pal. I've
been a columnist, editor, publisher, ^
and three*time best>seitlng author in
this industry going back to 1985...My
company has development credits on
more than 10,000 entertainment prod-
ucts going back to 1983. 1 also proba-
bly get paid more for any single thing I
write than you make in a month. I’ve
been in this newsgroup on and off
since it was first founded and on BBS
groups of related types even before
that, so put your genitals back in your
pants, pick up your wounded ego and
take construfl^ criticism in ^ide
and mov^i^r^u hfve NO clue and
I'm willing to bet th~at in 2 years, no
one will even remember you. Best of
luck in the fry cpok industry. Then
again, that’s autcfhated now, so you
might consider a new major.”
www.gamespy.com/top10/football a.shtm

. NCAA 99

NCAA Gamebreaker 98

Front Office Football

Front Page Sports Football Pro 97

Madden 2000

Madden 93 (Genesis)

Front Office Football 2
TV Sports Football
NFL 2K (for the Dreamcast)

Tecmo Bowl (Nintendo)

Inside Sports would like to humbly
submit our list, which makes the fol-
lowing revisions:

10. Front Office Football
9. TV Sports Football
8. NFL GameBreaker
7. Playmaker Football
6. NFL Challenge
5. Super Bowl Sunday
4. Tecmo Bowl
3. NFL2K
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by Jeff Green

What Hath I Wrought?

My kid is a game addict. . .and who's laughing now?

ill

I urn off that computer game right now and
get ready for school!!” There it is, folks: the
A most depressing, awful thing that’s ever
come out of my mouth. Including vomit.

Let me start from the beginning.

It was a weekday morning, and, as usual, my daugh-
ter Sarah and I were running late. In the many months
in which it had become my job to take her to school, we
had been on time exactly twice. What can I say? You try
getting a kid up and out in the morning. There’s a litany
of rituals to perform — beginning with untying them and
letting them out of the closet — as well as fighting the
kid's natural inclination to not want to get up and go to
school. And who can blame her? Not me. With all due
respect to teachers everywhere — who have the world's
hardest and most important job — I never developed a
love for the institution myself. Not since that
old bat Mrs. Leventhal. my first-grade
teacher, busted my wooden airplane in half.

Still, you know, the kid's gotta go to school.

She has to suffer just like I did. That’s the
way it works. That’s why I had a kid.

thing sticky. But climbing the boxes was the answer to
the puzzle— something I hadn’t figured out yet.

Imagine my pride at that moment. Like Joe DiMaggio
watching his son get his first base hit, or Louis XVI
watching his son exploit his first peasants, it’s the kind
of moment that dads live for.

■■■

Still, though, I want my kid to be edjeecated. And for
this to happen, I have to get her to school. And for that
to happen, I have to get her up in the mornings.

It's a weird thing, being a parent. Try as you might to
avoid it, you will end up saying all the same lame
things your parents said to you. Some people fall natu-
rally into the role of the tyrant— like Mussolini or my
father-in-law— but to many of us, it’s a drag to have to
be the "bad guy" and lay down the law.

When I last wrote about Sarah, she was in
pre-school and was just starting to get into
gaming. I wrote about how proud I was that
she was becoming a gaming geek, and how
important it was to her development. A
couple years later. I'm starting to wonder
what I was smoking at the time, and if my
dealer might have any left (Jesse; Call me!).

Actually, I'm still thrilled that she likes games, and
I’m even more thrilled that she's getting good at them.
As I’ve watched her plow through Humongous
Entertainment’s fantastic adventure games— the
PUTT-PUTT, FREDDI FISH, and SPY FOX series— I've
witnessed her powers of reasoning kick in big-time. I’m
not saying she got this all from computer games. No
doubt much of it is just the natural genius imparted by
my DNA.

But there's also no question in my mind that the
games have helped. Now, when she looks at a new
puzzle, she doesn’t immediately assume the answer
will come in two seconds. Now, she knows to think
things out, to understand what the problem is first, and
then to go about solving it logically. It’s a cool thing
to watch.

She's also started helping me out. Last week, I was
fretting over MDK2, stuck on the end-boss puzzle of
Level 6. Sarah watched me for a while, and then scrib-
bled on a piece of paper; "Maby you shod get some-
thing that is stiky like the spy gajit in Spy Fox to klim
the boxis.” First of all, back off on the spelling errors,
bub. She’s not even in first grade, and this is still more
literate than half the letters we get in the CGW mail-
box. Second, she was right. Not about finding some-

Imagine my pride at that moment.
Like Joe DiMaggio watching his son get
his first base hit, or Louis XVI watching
his son expioit his first peasants, it's the
kind of moment that dads live for. (H

I have spent my entire life trying to get away with
playing games as much as possible, while fooling
various authority figures who have attempted to thwart
my efforts. Parents, teachers, bosses, even (at times,

I admit) girlfriends: all servants of The Enemy, forcing
me to divert my attention elsewhere when all I really
wanted to do was get past the next boss, puzzle, or
scenario.

And now, here we are, on a school morning, and
Sarah is utterly obsessed with PYJAMA SAM 3.

She's near the end, she can feel it. But Dad won’t let
her play.

Get dressed. Brush your hair. Finish your cereal. No,
you can’t play now. No, not even for a minute. We’re
leaving. Get your shoes on. They’re upstairs? Go get
’em. Hurry up. ...Hello! Let’s go! Don't make me come
up there. What’re you— oh, man— turn off that compute:
game right now and get ready for school!

I'm so sorry, Sarah. Someday you’ll understand. You
won't like it. But you’ll understand.

And then you’ll do it to your kids.

What Jeff doesn't realize is that Sarah finished PYJAMA
SAM 3 at school that day, after sneaking the save game
file onto a Zip disk. Email Big Daddy Green at
jefLgreen@ziffdavis.com. KdYJ

Computer Gaming World (ISSN 0744-6667) is published monthly by Ziff Davis Media. Inc., Z8 E. 2flth St., New Yoik, NY 10016. Subscription rale is S27.97 for a one-year subscription (12
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every Inspiron'" notebook we sell. Of course, chances are
you'll never need someone to drop by. But if you ever do,
just find a phone. De!l4me™ is all about helping you get
the most out of your PC. Our award-winning service and
support is just one ofthe ways we're making it happen.

Celeron"

DeLL4me9Com

Includes Windows 98, Second Edition — the home version of the world's favorite software.

customize.

[the system, the price, both.]

From the parts to the price, you can customize a system to be as individual as you are.
That's what Dell 4me"' is all about. Helping you get the most out of your PC. Or should
we say your customized PC. Learn more at www.dell4me.com

INTEL' PENTIUM' III PROCESSORS. Looking for pure processing power on your
system? Now you can get up to IGHz of processing speed on Dimension'" desktops
or up to 750MHz on Inspiron'" notebooks. Set your own speed.

HARD DRIVES. New 45GB^ and 75GB® hard drives available on
Dimension XPS B and 4100 Series desktops and 30GS'" hard drives
on Inspiron notebooks. All with enough capacity to store loads
of digital videos, still images, and MP3 files.

AWARD-WINNING SERVICE. You've tailored your entire system
from top to bottom. So why not do the same with your service?
1-Yr Next-Business-Day At-Home Service' is included, as always.
But now you can choose Premier 3-Yr At-Home Service'
on Dimension desktops for just S99.

SURFING THE WEB. Want a system that makes it easy
to surf the Web? We'll hook you up with Dellnet'"
internet Access, including 20MB of online backup’'
for only $99 a year prepaid. Build a machine that
surfs the way you want it to.

DELL™ NOTEBOOKS:

DELL" INSPIRON" 3800

Design and Affordability

■ Intel' Celeron'" Processor at 500MHz

■ 12.1" SVGA TFT Active Matrix Display

■ 32MB 100MHz SDRAM

■ 4.8GB’ UltraATA Hard Drive

■ Modular 24X Max CD-ROM

■ 2X AGP SMB ATI RAGE Mobil!ty'"-M1 3D' Video

■ 53WHr Lithium Ion Battery with
ExpressCharge'" Technology

■ Internal PCI V.90 56K Capable" FaxModem

■ MS' Works Suite 2000 ■ MS' Windows’ 98, SE
Contact us about MS’ Windows' Me

■ 1-Yr Limited Warranty’

■ 1-Yr Next-Business-Day On-site Service'

I AA.O E-VALUE code
^ I 89084-800814a

As low Bs S40/MO-. for 48 Mos.'

DELL" INSPIRON" sooo

Performance and Mobility

■ Intel’ Pentium' III Processor at 650MHz
Featuring Intel' SpeedStep'" Technology"

■ 15" SuperXGA+ TFT Display

■ 64MB 100MHz SDRAM

■ 6GB’ UltraATA Hard Drive

■ Modular 24X Max CD-ROM

■ 2X AGP SMB ATI RAGE Mobility"'-P 30’ Video

■ 52WHr Lithium Ion Battery

■ Internal V.90 56K Capable" FaxModem

■ MS' Works Suite 2000 ■ MS' Windows’ 98, SE
Contact us about MS’ Windows’ Me

■ 3-Yr Limited Warranty'

■ 3-Yr Next-Business-Day On-site Service'

<t OOOO E-VALUE CODE

4).AX7 7 89084-800822h

As low as 563/Mo., for 48 Mos.'

DELL" INSPIRON" 7500

Mobile Desktop

■ Intel' Pentium' III Processor at 650MHz
Featuring Intel' SpeedStep " Technology"

■ 15.4" Super XGA TFT Display

■ 96MB lOOMHz SDRAM

■ 10GB’ Ultra ATA Hard Drive

■ Removable Combo 32X Max CD-ROM
and Floppy Drive

■ 2X AGP SMB ATI RAGE Mobility "-P 3D’ Video

■ 79WHr Lithium Ion Battery

■ Internal V.90 56K Capable' FaxModem

■ MS' Works Suite 2000 ■ MS' Windows’ 98, SE
Contact us about MS’ Windows' Me

■ 3-Yr Limited Warranty'

■ 3-Yr Next-Business-Day On-site Service'

<t0700 E-VALUE CODE

^.^#77 89084-800827

As low as S76/Mo,. (or 48 Mos.

DELL DESKTOPS

DELL" DIMENSION" L Series

Affordable Desktop Solution

■ Intel' Celeron " Processor at 566MHz

■ 64M8 SDRAM ■ 7.5GB' Ultra ATA Hard Drive

■ 15" {13.8" vis) E550 Monitor

■ Intel' 3D‘ AGP Graphics

■ 48XMax CD-ROM Drive

■ SoundBlaster 64V PCI LC Sound Card

■ PC Speakers

■ V.90 56K Capable" PCI DataFax Modem
for Windows'

■ MS' Works Suite 2000 ■ MS' Windows' 98, SE
Contact us about MS' Windows' Me

■ 3-Yr Limited Warranty' ■ 1-YrAt-HomeService‘

<t 700 E-VALUECODE

^ X 77 89084-500807

As low as S22/MO., for 48 Mos."

DELL" DIMENSION" L Series

Affordable Desktop Solution

■ Intel' Pentium' III Processor at 667MHz

■ 64MB SDRAM ■ 7.5GB' Ultra ATA Hard Drive

■ 15" (13.8" vis) E550 Monitor

• Intel' 3D' AGP Graphics

■ 48X Max CD-ROM Drive

■ SoundBlaster 64V PCI LC Sound Card

• PC Speakers

■ V.90 56K Capable" PCI DataFax Modem
for Windows®

■ MS’ Works Suite 2000 ■ MS’ Windows’ 98, SE
Contact us about MS' Windows’ Me

■ 3-Yr Limited Warranty’ ■ 1-Yr At-Home Service*

<t QOO E-VALUECODE

^077 89084-500808

As low as $25/Mo., for 48 Mos.”

DELL" DIMENSION" 4100 Series

Advanced Performance, Smart Value

■ Intel’ Pentium’ III Processor at 800MHz

■ 128MB SDRAM 3t133MHz

■ 10GB’ Ultra ATA Hard Drive

■ 17" (16.0" vis, .28dp) E770 Monitor

■ 32MB NVIDIA TNT2 M64 4X AGP Graphics

■ 48X Max CD-ROM Drive

■ SB Live! Value Digital

■ harman/kardon Speakers

■ V.90 56K Capable" PCI Telephony Modem
for Windows'

■ MS' Works Suite 2000 ■ MS' Windows' 98, SE
Contact us about MS' Windows’ Me

■ 3-Yr Limited Warranty’ ■ 1-Yr Al-Home Service*

& I AOO E-VALUE CODE

^ I *r77 89084-500814S

As low as S41/MO., for 48 Mos.”

DELL" DIMENSION" XPSBSeries

Cutting Edge Technology

■ Intel' Pentium' III Processor at 933MHz

■ 128MB RDRAM ■ 30GB" Ultra ATA Hard Drive

■ 19“ (17.9" vis, .24 - .25AG) P991 FD
Trinitron' Monitor

■ NEW 32MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS
4X AGP Graphics

■ 12X Max DVD-ROM Drive

■ SB Live! Value Digital

■ Altec Lansing’ ACS-340'" Speakers with
Subwoofer

■ V.90 56K Capable" PCI Telephony Modem

■ MS’ Works Suite 2000 ■ MS' Windows' 98, SE
Contact us about MS"' Windows’ Me

■ 3-Yr Limited Warranty’ ■ 1-Yr At-Home Service*

<t O coo E-VALUE CODE

^,^J77 89084-500825S

As low as S71/MO., for 48 Mos.'

DELL UPGRADES:

SOFTWARE & PERIPHERALS

Printers;

■ HP’ DeskJet" 952C - S249 after

S50 HP' Mail-In Rebate (Reg. S299)”

■ HP' DeskJet’ 932C, add S199

■ Epson’ Stylus Color 740, add S99
Scanners:

■ HP' ScanJet’ 4200, add S149

■ Epson' Perfection'" 610, add $129

■ UMAX' 2100U,addS89
Power Protection:

■ Pro 8T2 SurgeArrest, add $39

■ APC SurgeArrest Per 7, add $17,95
Software:

■ Ultimate Action Game 5-pack
(Dimension'" only)'", add $99

■ Home Reference 4-pack'", add $79

SERVICES

Internet Service:

■ 1-Yr Dellnet'" Internet Access'" with 20MB
of Online Backup”, add $99

Service Upgrades:

■ Dell'" Dimension " Premier 3-Yr At-Home
Service* add $99

■ Dell'" Inspiron'" 3800 Notebook 3-Yr Next-
Business-Day On-silG Service*, add $149

Payment Solutions;

■ Dell'" Platinum Visa Card

■ Dell"' 48-Month Purchase Plan”

■ Dell" E-Check

(automatic checking withdrawal)

Pentium®///

Includes Windows 98, Second
Edition — the home version of
the world's favorite software.

’'incUitles 150 hrs./moiith, [lius
S1.50/iir. (or fraction) over 150 iioiirs,
#800/8B8/877 access cfinrijetl S4.95/hr.
extra. Exclurles taxes and telc|ihone
cherries. Additionii! SI. 00/1ir. surcharge
in HI and AK. ' Monthly payment
based on 13.99Vo APR FOR QUALIFIED
CUSTOMERS. OFFER VARIES BY
CREDITWORTHINESS OF CUSTOMER
AS DETERMINED BY LENDER. Taxes
and shipping charges extra and
vary. From Dell Financial Services
L.P. or Americiiti Investment Bank,
N.A. to U S. state residents (iiiclnriing
D.C.) with approved credit. Availability
may be limited in some states
Priceb. soecificnirons, anO availahiiity 'nay
ciiaiige williuut notice Taxe.s and
cliarycs extra, and vary Catinot Do camhitied
with other oflers or discounts U S only Offer
valid lor Dell Home Systems Co only 'Fur a cooy
of oir GnatanlEes or Limileil VViirratilics, write
Dell USA L.P, Arm- VVarraniius, One Onll W.iy,
Round Rocs, Texas 78682 'Ai-Hnme tir uii-situ
service provided via ihird-piirty coiitraei with
ciislonier Availahility viines. Tedinicnan will de
dispaiclietl if tiuoessaty, fnlinwiny piiomt-ljased
tioiitHoshooiint) To receive Next-Biismcss-Day
service, Doll must notify the service providei
tiefors Spin (cii.siomoi's tmiel Otlier coridilions
apply. For Hard drives, G8 inenns 1 liilimn dyles,
accessible capBCity vanes With npeiatina envi-
ronment Download spoeds limited to 53Kbps
Upload siieeds aie less labnui 30Kbps) suit vu'y
by modem rnanulaclnrcr iiiid online ctjiidilioris
Analog phone Ime and compatible server
required. -Oni'iie backup s'ltvcos provirfed hy
: r rd-paiv, agreemerii with the customer Limited
r.) 20MB ol storage, .idHihuiiai space available al
additional charge Dell is not le.'.ptnisible far lust
data. So'tware, packaging ru dociiineniaiian
Pilfer from retail versions 'The processor may
bo reduced to a lower oporaimy speed when
operating on baiiurv povAir Fui rebate Jetiiils
,ind coupons, rail 800-728-9665 loi HP and
800-277-6I87 fnr Epson Intel, the Intr.-I Insirfi: logo,
and Pentium are registered Irarteinarks, artd
Intel SpeedStep and Cainron am liedamaiits
ol Intel Ciirperation MS, Microsuh, and Windows
me registered iradeniaiks of Mierosoh Corpoiation
HP am! DeskJet are registered itarteiiiuiks
of Hewlett-Packard Corporation Trniition is
a registered iraflumark ol Sony Ciirporiilmn
''72000 Deli Computer Corporation All rights reserved

iKgiL 4 me»com

a dell pc.
an inter pentium’ III

processor,
an $ 899 price tag.

[will the advantages of buying direct never cease?]

Presenting a very affordable, very powerful
Dell™ Dimension™ L Series Desktop PC.

DELL" DIMENSION ™ L Series

Affordable Desktop Solution

■ Intel' Pentium' 111 Processor at 667IVlHz

■ 64MB SDRAM

■ 7.5GB'' Ultra ATA Hard Drive

■ 15" (13.8" vis) E550 Monitor

■ Intel ' 3D^ AGP Graphics

■ 48X Max CD-ROM Drive

■ SoundBlaster 64V PCI LC Sound Card

■ PC Speakers

■ V.90 56K Capable" PCI DataFax Modem for Windows"'

■ MS' Works Suite 2000 ■ MS" Windows" 98, SE
Contact us about MS’ Windows" Me

■ 3-Yr Limited Warranty" ■ 1-Yr At-Home Service'

OOO E-VALUECODE

^ Oy y 89082-500808

DELL RECOMMENDED UPGRADE:

■ Premier 3-Yr At-Home Service', add $99

The idea is simple, cut out the middleman, give people a better
deal. The proof is astonishing, a Dell'" Dimension™ loaded
with an Intel' Pentium' III processor for just $899. This speedy
processor gives your family the power to run all kinds of
software, video, music, and games. Plus, this Dimension comes
with SAME of memory, speakers, modem, and a monitor. Getting
this Dell PC, with this Intel Pentium III processor at this amazing
price is like reaching into your pocket for a tissue and pulling out a
twenty. A great deal on a Dell computer with an Intel Pentium III
processor is just one more way DellAme'” is helping you get the
most out of your PC. Dell's award-winning service and support is
another. And you can only get it by buying direct from Dell.

Pentium®///

iK»LL4me9Com

Includes Windows 98, Second Edition — the home version of the world's favorite software.

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